Department of Education 

FOR THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 



MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION 



UNITED STATES 

EDITED BY 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 

Professor of Philosophy and Education in Columbia University, New York 



THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 



EDWARD DELAVAN PERRY, Ph. D., 

Professor of the Greek Language and Literature, Columbia University, 
New York 



This Monograph is contributed to the United States Educational Exhibit by the 
State of New York 



Department of Education 

FOR THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition or 1900 

Director 
HOWARD J. ROGERS, Albany, N. Y. 



MONOGRAPHS 

ON 

EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES 

EDITED BY 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 

Professor of Philosophy and Education in Columbia Univtrsity, New York 



i EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION — 
Andrew Sloan Draper, President of the University of Illinois, Cham- 
paig?i, Illinois 

2 KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION — Susan E. Blow, Cazenovia, New 

York 

3 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION — William T. Harris, United States 

Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. 

4 SECONDARY EDUCATION — Elmer Ellsworth Brown, Professor 

of Education in the University of California, Berkeley, California 

5 THE AMERICAN COLLEGE — Andrew Fleming West, Professorof 

Latin in Princeton University, Princeton, New fersey 

6 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY— Edward Delavan Perry, Jay 

Professor of Greek in Columbia University, New York 

7 EDUCATION OF WOMEN — M. Carey Thomas, President of Bryn 

Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 

8 TRAINING OF TEACHERS — B. A. Hinsdale, Professor of the Science 

and Art of Teaching in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 
Michigan 

9 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE AND HYGIENE — Gilbert B. Morrison, 

Principal of the Manual Training High School, Kansas City, Missouri 

10 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION — James Russell Parsons, Director of 

the College and High School Departtnents, University of the State of 
New York, Albany, New York 

11 SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION — 

T. C. Mendenhall, President of the Technological Institute, Worces- 
ter, Massachusetts 

12 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION — Charles W. Dabney, President 

of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 

13 COMMERCIAL EDUCATION — Edmund J. James, Professor of Public 

Administration in the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 

14 ART AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION — Isaac Edwards Clarke, 

Bureau of Educatioti, Washington, D. C. 

15 EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES — Edward Ellis Allen, Principal of 

the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, Over- 
brook, Pennsylvania 

16 SUMMER SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION — Herbert B. 

Adams, Professor of American and Institutional History in the Johns 
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 

17 SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS — James McKeen 

Cattell, Professor of Psychology in Columbia University, New York 

18 EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO — Booker T. Washington, Principal 

of the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama 

19 EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN— William N. Hailmann, Superin- 

tendent of Schools, Dayton, Ohio 



Department of Education 

FOR THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 



MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION 

IN THE 

UNITED STATES 

EDITED BY 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 
Professor of Philosophy and Education in Columbia University, New York 



THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 



EDWARD DELAVAN PERRY, Ph. D., 

Jay Professor of the Greek Language and Literature, Columbia University, 

New York 



This Monograph is contributed to the United States Educational Exhibit by the 
State of New York 






Copyright by 
J. B. LYON COMPANY 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGB 

I. Introduction. Do universities or their equivalent exist in the United 

States of America ? 3 

II. Different forms of American universities. The state universities. Con- 
trast with European universities 7 

III. Development of the university out of the college. Earliest beginnings 

of university or graduate instruction. Influence of German models 
and methods 33 

IV. Qualifications for admission. Studies and degrees. Honorary doctors 

of philosophy. Aids to study and research: Museums, laboratories, 

libraries 40 

V. Publications of American universities 47 

VI. Fellowships and scholarships. Gifts and endowments, particularly for 

research 50 

VII. Some present university problems 55 

VIII. Appendix A. Statistics 64 

IX. Appendix B. Bibliography 66 



THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 



I INTRODUCTION. DO UNIVERSITIES OR THEIR EQUIVALENT 
EXIST IN THE UNITED STATES? 

Professor Ladd of Yale university, in an essay originally 
read before the " Round Table" of Boston, about 1888, and 
republished in his little book, The Higher Education? says : 
" Any one possessed of the requisite information knows at 
once what is meant by the university of France, the English 
universities, or a German university ; but no one can become 
so conversant with facts as to tell what an American uni- 
versity is." And again: " — it is scarcely less true than it 
was a score of years ago, that, although there may be uni- 
versities in America, no one can tell what an American 
university is." 

A discouraging statement certainly, if true, for the would- 
be exponent of the American university ! While not so 
accurate at the present day as when first made, it is still true 
enough, if one fail to free himself at the very start from 
dependence upon the name as necessarily indicative of the 
thing. It is incontestable that within the last ten years the 
conception of the natural and necessary relation of the "uni- 
versity " to the " college " has become much clearer, and that 
many and important changes of organization and adminis- 
tration have resulted, so that it is certainly easier than it was 
in 1888 to define, or at least to describe, the American uni- 
versity. However, there remain difficulties of many kinds ; 
and it still is, and will undoubtedly be for years to come, if 
not actually impossible, at least very difficult, to give a defini- 
tion broad enough to include all institutions of learning in 
the United States which possess true university character, 
and precise enough to exclude all others. 

*N. Y., Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1899. 



4 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [254 

The first difficulty is this : The names " university " and 
"college," as used in the official titles of institutions, are 
absolutely worthless as indications of the character of these 
institutions. Among the scores of titular " universities " in 
this country most are merely colleges, some good, some indif- 
ferent, some so badly endowed and organized as to be not 
even good high schools. On the other hand, Bryn Mawr 
" college " has never assumed, even in informal use, the name 
" university," yet offers true university instruction of the 
highest order in most of the subjects covered by the philo- 
sophische Fakult'dt of a German university ; and even Har- 
vard and Columbia, though they have now acquired a true 
university character, of a very elaborate type, and are habitu- 
ally spoken of as such, have retained in their corporate titles 
their ancient designation of " college." It happens that in 
the most eastern states the word " university " is much less 
used as a title, the higher institutions of learning having 
mostly been founded while the English influence was still 
strong, many of them indeed in colonial times, under direct 
English authority, and so having adopted the peculiarly Eng- 
lish name of " college." In the newer states more ambitious 
plans prevailed, and the consideration of conditions in non- 
English European countries — notably those of Germany, 
where the universities had obtained a more commanding 
position and influence than elsewhere by the beginning of 
the 19th century — led to the choice of the name of appar- 
ently greater dignity. This consideration seems also to have 
been paramount with the founders of the countless purely 
sectarian institutions which sprang up all over the country, 
and still lead a precarious existence, striving to hold the 
attention of their brethren in the faith by promiscuously 
showering down honorary degrees. Yet it would be grossly 
unfair to assume that in all cases the name of university was 
adopted out of pure conceit ; in many the choice of name 
was the proclamation of a purpose sincerely cherished, and 
resolutely carried forward, amid difficulties of which the 
European critic can form no conception, to a realization 



255] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 5 

more or less complete. It will be necessary then to get rid 
of this first difficulty by ignoring completely the difference 
in title. If we shall succeed in describing the thing, though 
we may be ever conscious of the unfortunate ambiguity of 
terms, now doubtless too firmly fixed in official and legal 
use to be easily changed, we may rest content. 

Another difficulty is this. It is now clearly seen that, as 
institutions, the college and the university, having very dif- 
ferent functions, demand a different organization and admin- 
istration. Yet the full recognition of this fact is compara- 
tively recent, and the logical consequences have been reached 
in only a few instances. The circumstances of foundation 
and the necessities of the hour have made it practically 
impossible for the university and the college in the United 
States to exist apart. There are still but two institutions 
which may be called even fragmentary universities entirely 
unconnected with a college : The Clark university of Worces- 
ter, Mass., and the Catholic university of America at Wash- 
ington. Down to 1876, when the Johns Hopkins university 
was opened, whatever real university instruction was offered 
was organized at a college already existing, and even the 
founders of the Johns Hopkins, though their chief purpose 
was avowedly to provide for university instruction of the 
highest grade, felt it necessary or at least advisable to organ- 
ize a college also. The wide scope planned for Cornell 
university, opened in 1868, from the first necessarily included 
a college, nay, many colleges, as part of the scheme. In all 
discussion of the American university, therefore, in this 
article it must be borne in mind that the term (with the two 
exceptions noted above) is used to include only certain parts 
of institutions whose organism is often highly complex, and 
that probably no two institutions coincide in theory or even 
in practice, though certain principles and practices are com- 
mon to those of more complete type. 

What then is that American university, a description of 
which is here undertaken, if it does not anywhere exist in 
completeness and exactness, unobscured by contact with 



6 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [256 

institutions of different character and divergent aims ? It 
will be least misleading to say at the outset: It is nowhere. 
In so far, therefore, Professor von Hoist's famous pronounce- 
ment is right ; a university in the European sense does not 
exist in America. And yet, from Harvard on the Atlantic 
tidewater to the University of California, which looks out 
through the Golden Gate upon the Pacific, and from Minne- 
apolis to New Orleans, will be found many institutions which 
offer training in the methods of scientific research, oppor- 
tunities for the prosecution of such research, and abundant 
facilities in the way of libraries, museums and laboratories, 
to those individuals who have had such preliminary training 
as to be able to profit fully by these advantages, and which 
certify by the formal bestowal of a particular degree or 
degrees that the individual receiving one of them has proved 
himself or herself to have acquired the methods and habits 
of such scientific research. This is equivalent to saying, in 
the technical language in vogue in the United States, that 
these institutions offer to graduate students courses leading 
to advanced or higher degrees. Where such courses are 
well organized and equipped and successfully maintained, 
there is a university at least in part, and, it may be, in the 
whole. Whether the institution do only this, or this and 
many other things besides, and whether it be called univer- 
sity or college, may be important questions from some points 
of view ; for the point of view of this discussion the exist- 
ence of such organization for research work by graduates is 
the test, and it is its purpose to describe as clearly as possi- 
ble such organization of this character as may be found in 
the United States of America. Apparent or evident diva- 
gations from this strict purpose will perhaps find readier 
pardon from the foregoing allusions to some of the diffi- 
culties in the way. 



:57] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 



II DIFFERENT FORMS OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. THE STATE 
UNIVERSITIES. CONTRAST WITH EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES 

It has often been remarked by observant foreign travel- 
lers in the United States that among this young people 
many institutions change less rapidly than in the older 
nations of Europe. This conservatism, in large part an 
English trait persisting through many generations, is par- 
ticularly observable in the field of education ; experiments 
are carefully tried, downright innovations still less willingly 
adopted. Only where occasion is offered for new founda- 
tions are we apt to find a ready breaking with traditional 
forms. When, on reviewing the American institutions of 
learning to discover which of them give the opportunities for 
training in the methods of research that we have taken as 
our standard of measurement, we find them to be almost 
without exception colleges, or technical schools, or pro- 
fessional schools as well, or all of these together, we shall 
also find that they were generally colleges first of all, and 
that training in research was made a part of the system only 
later, very gradually and hesitatingly, the two institutions 
which disclaim all " college " work being almost the youngest, 
and one of them not yet displaying a very encouraging 
vitality. We shall find also that one of the oldest and most 
famous colleges of all, Yale, was also the first to institute 
regular courses of instruction for those who wished to pur- 
sue their studies after receiving the degree of bachelor of 
arts. 

A. Universities unconnected with colleges 

i Clark university, Worcester, Mass. — Clark university 
was founded in 1887 by the generous gift of Mr. Jonas G. 
Clark, and the work of instruction was begun in 1889. From 
the first the range of the future university was strictly lim- 
ited ; there was to be no college, no technical school, no pro- 
fessional schools pure and simple. Only those who had 
taken a first degree were to be admitted, and of these only 



8 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [258 

such individuals as should give promise of high attainments 
in some specialty of scientific research. The design and 
organization of the new institution were intrusted to Mr. 
Stanley G. Hall, for some years professor of philosophy at 
Johns Hopkins university in Baltimore. Only a few depart- 
ments were organized, and these were intended to cover sub- 
jects closely and organically connected, viz. : mathematics, 
physics, chemistry, biology (including anatomy, physiology 
and palaeontology) and psychology (including neurology, 
anthropology, criminology and history of philosophy). It 
was strongly emphasized in the scheme of foundation that so 
far as possible the line of demarcation between professor 
and student should be wiped out ; the professors and other 
instructors were to feel themselves as merely older students, 
the students were to be expected to lecture occasionally on 
topics connected with their chosen specialties. The attempt 
to secure large numbers of students was expressly dis- 
claimed. Seminar-organization was adopted as the essential 
plan of the institution, one which should bind together 
instructors and students into homogenous groups. For suc- 
cessful completion of certain requirements of research, 
including the publication of an acceptable dissertation, the 
degree of doctor of philosophy was offered. A number of 
fellowships and scholarships were established, making it 
possible for students of limited means to carry on their 
researches unhampered by the necessity of seeking lucrative 
employment outside of their university studies. 

As was expected, the number of students has never been 
great; it has varied from 53 in 1892-3 to 38 in 1896-7 and 
48 in 1898-9. The number of instructors has remained 
nearly constant, being in 1898-9 10. The departments at 
present (1899) organized are the following: Mathematics, 
biology, philosophy, physics, pedagogy, psychology and 
anthropology ; it is intended to organize others from time 
to time, in logical order of development. Thus far Clark 
university, judged by its size alone, is a " torso of a univer- 
sity," to use Professor von Hoist's famous phrase ; its 



259] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 9 

methods, however, and the character of the work accom- 
plished there, are thoroughly those of the most fully 
developed universities of the old world. 

2 The Catholic university of America, Washington, D. C. — 
The inception of this institution dates from 1884, when 
its establishment was decided upon at a Roman Catholic 
congress held in Baltimore. The actual work of instruction 
was begun in 1889, in the school of theology. The univer- 
sity is now constituted as follows : 

1 School of divinity, comprising four departments : a Bib- 
lical sciences ; b Dogmatic sciences ; c Moral sciences ; 
d Historical sciences. 

2 School of philosophy, comprising six departments : 
a Philosophy ; b Letters ; c Mathematics ; d Physics ; e 
Chemistry ; f Biological sciences. 

For admission to the school of philosophy candidates must 
have received the bachelor's degree, or show by passing an 
examination that they have received the full equivalent of a 
collegiate course of training. Two degrees are granted, 
master of philosophy (Ph. M.), after two years' graduate 
study, an examination on a major and a minor subject, and 
the presentation of a satisfactory dissertation ; and doctor 
of philosophy, after not less than three years' graduate 
study, an examination on a major and two minor subjects, 
and a satisfactory dissertation. 

3 The school of social science, comprising four depart- 
ments : a Sociology ; b Economics ; c Political science ; 
d Law. 

The first three of these constitute a school of social 
science, or political science, in a narrower sense. Three 
degrees are offered, bachelor, master and doctor of social 
science ; no specific period of study is prescribed for them, 
but satisfactory dissertations are required and examinations 
must be passed. The department of law is somewhat differ- 
ently organized, and grants six degrees : bachelor and mas- 
ter of laws, doctor of civil law, doctor of ecclesiastical law, 
doctor of civil and ecclesiastical law (J. U. D.), and doctor 



IO THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [260 

of laws (LL. D.). The holding of a bachelor's degree, 
while not demanded for admission to the school of law, is 
urgently recommended. 

4 The institute of technology consists of four depart- 
ments : a Applied mathematics ; b Civil engineering ; c 
Electrical engineering ; d Mechanical engineering. 

Neither Clark university nor the Catholic university of 
America admits women to any of its courses of instruction. 

B. Universities united with colleges and professional and 
technical schools 
The union of college and university may fairly be called 
the typical American form of organization for the higher 
education. Only in the institutions of comparatively recent 
origin do we find that university organization was attempted 
from the first. The professional and technical schools have 
generally occupied a position of great independence toward 
the institution as a whole, in many cases having hardly 
more than the name in common, but possessing their own 
budgets and boards of trustees, sometimes even being admin- 
istered as proprietary schools, wherein the professors divided 
among themselves the fees paid by the students. The 
medical schools have been the most independent in this 
respect. It should be borne in mind that in the case of 
such complex institutions the name " university " is applied 
to the whole, so that, theoretically at least, the university 
may include the equivalent of a German university, tcchnische 
Hochschule (formerly called Poly technician), landwirtschaft- 
liche Hochschule or agricultural college, and Gymnasium. 
Passing under review the many types of organization 
wherein university and college are united, we shall find that 
in most cases the graduate and undergraduate work are car- 
ried on by the same individuals, so that, instead of a univer- 
sity and a college being in alliance, so to speak, as might be 
said if the body of instructors of each part were composed 
of quite different individuals, with one governing body for 
the whole, we have to do really with a complex and overlap- 



26l] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY II 

ping structure. Herein lies, it must be said, one of the 
greatest disadvantages for the American university, though 
there are valuable compensations. The American univer- 
sity professor is rarely able to devote himself exclusively to 
advanced scientific work with well-prepared students, but 
must, in most cases, carry on a good deal of mere class 
work as well, which cannot but prove detrimental to the 
progress of his researches. 

The many institutions falling under this head illustrate 
almost as many principles of combination as there are insti- 
tutions. A detailed description of all is of course impossi- 
ble here ; those that are chosen as the most instructive types 
may best be grouped in two classes : 

Into the first class (a) will come those which, though pos- 
sessing both a collegiate or undergraduate and a graduate 
department, yet in practice draw a hard and fast line between 
the two, conducting the undergraduate and graduate courses 
as entirely separate, sometimes with quite different methods, 
and rigidly excluding from the latter courses all who have 
not taken a baccalaureate degree or its equivalent (as for 
example the testimonium maturitatis or Reifezeugniss of a 
German gymnasium). Very few institutions belong in this 
first group. 

a 

i Johns Hopkins university — This famous establishment, 
the good influence of which upon the general development of 
higher education in the United States has been incalculably 
great, was founded by the noble bequests of Johns Hopkins, a 
citizen of Baltimore. Mr. Hopkins devoted nearly all of his 
estate, amounting to more than three and a half million dol- 
lars, to the foundation of a university and a hospital. The 
institution was incorporated in 1867 ; the board of trustees 
was organized in 1870, and held its first meeting in 1874. 
In the same year Professor Daniel Coit Gilman, of the Uni- 
versity of California, and previously of Yale university, was 
elected president. The work of instruction was begun in 
1876 ; from the first the chief aim was proclaimed to be the 



12 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [262 

development of instruction in the methods of scientific 
research. An undergraduate or collegiate course was also 
arranged, intended to give the best possible preparation for 
the advanced work, and leading to the degree of bachelor 
of arts. In the university proper only a faculty of philoso- 
phy was organized, as the faculty of medicine, which was 
also planned, had to wait for its realization upon the open- 
ing of the hospital. This event took place in 1889, and 
four years later the school of medicine was opened. It 
admits women on equal terms with men, this having been 
stipulated by Miss Garrett, by whom large gifts were made; 
women are not admitted to either the school of philosophy 
or the undergraduate department. 

An important place at Johns Hopkins university has 
always been held by the " fellows." Twenty fellowships are 
awarded each year to the most promising among the many 
candidates, without preference of college ; each fellowship is 
of the annual value of $500, though it does not exempt 
from charges for tuition. The candidates must prove 
their ability to carry on independent researches in the sub- 
jects in which they seek fellowships, and engage to prose- 
cute such researches during the time of their appointment. 
In the language of the official announcement of the univer- 
sity the fellowships are bestowed " almost exclusively on 
young men desirous of becoming teachers of science and 
literature, or proposing to devote their lives to special 
branches of learning which lie outside of the ordinary 
studies of the lawyer, the physician and the clergyman." 
The university also extends the privilege of " fellowships by 
courtesy " (without emolument) to certain individuals. 

The university receives as students the following classes : 

1. College graduates and other advanced scholars, who may 
proceed to the degree of doctor of philosophy, in literature 
or science, or remain for longer or shorter periods in such 
of the various seminaries or laboratories as they may choose. 

2. Undergraduate students looking forward to the degree 
of bachelor of arts. 3. Candidates for the degree of doctor 



263] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 1 3 

of medicine. 4. Doctors of medicine desiring to pursue 
certain postgraduate courses. 5. Students who have taken 
no degree, and are not looking forward to a degree, but who 
desire to avail themselves for a brief period of the opportu- 
nities here offered. 

The courses of study under 1, 3 and 4 are entirely closed 
to those who are still candidates for a baccalaureate degree. 

2 Bryn Mawr college — This excellent institution for 
women, modeled closely after the pattern of Johns Hopkins 
university, is situated at Bryn Mawr, a suburb of Philadel- 
phia. It was founded chiefly by the gifts of Dr. Jos. 
W. Taylor and other members of the Society of Friends 
(" Quakers "), and opened in 1 885. Four classes are admitted : 
Graduates, undergraduates, special students, and hearers ; 
the latter, receiving no formal recognition from the institu- 
tion, are admitted to various courses by the consent of the 
instructors. To the graduate courses only holders of the 
degree of bachelor of arts are admitted. These courses 
cover the usual ground of the " faculty of philosophy," as at 
Johns Hopkins, i. e., philosophy, logic and psychology, lan- 
guage and letters, political and social science, history, nat- 
ural science and mathematics, and lead to the degrees of 
master of arts and doctor of philosophy. 

From the first the standard set at Bryn Mawr has been 
extremely high, and a very able body of instructors has been 
secured. Its degrees are held fully equal to those granted 
anywhere in the United States. 

3 University of Pennsylvania — In 1751 the "Charitable 
School" at Philadelphia, which had been established in 1740, 
was reconstituted, under the advice of Franklin, into an 
academy, comprising an English, Latin and mathematical 
school. Two years later a charter was granted by the gover- 
nors of the province of Pennsylvania; and in 1755 the insti- 
tution received the privilege of granting degrees, and was 
officially designated as: " The College and Academy of 
Philadelphia, in the Province of Pennsylvania." In 1791, 
after several years of tribulation, a more recent institution, 



14 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [264 

founded largely by spoliation of the old college, was united 
with it, under the name of the University of Pennsylvania. 

The university is entirely a private and self-perpetuating 
corporation, except that the governor of the state is virtute 
officii president of the trustees. It comprises the following 
teaching divisions : The college, including the school of 
arts and the Towne scientific school ; the department of 
philosophy (graduate school) ; the department of law ; the 
department of medicine ; the laboratory of hygiene ; the 
department of dentistry ; the department of veterinary 
medicine. 

The department of philosophy, or graduate department, is 
organized to give advanced instruction in the various 
branches of literature and science. Admission is granted to 
persons holding a " bachelor's degree in arts, letters, philoso- 
phy, pure or applied science, granted by the University of 
Pennsylvania or by any college or university whose degrees 
are recognized by this university." Admission to the gradu- 
ate school does not imply admission to candidacy for a 
degree. The courses of instruction are grouped as follows : 
I. Semitic languages. II. American archaeology and lan- 
guages. III. Indo-European philology. IV. Classical lan- 
guages. V. Germanic languages. VI. Romanic languages. 
VII. English. VIII. Philosophy, ethics, psychology and 
pedagogy. IX. History. X. Economics, politics, soci- 
ology and statistics. XI. Mathematics. XII. Astronomy. 
XIII. Physics. XIV. Chemistry. XV. Botany and 
zoology. XVI. Geology and minerology. 

The principle of separation between undergraduate and 
graduate students is, with some few exceptions, strictly 
carried out. These exceptions are found chiefly in depart- 
ments which are not represented in the college plan of 
instruction except by one or more courses offered to seniors, 
as e. g. Semitic languages and Sanskrit. 

In this group might also be placed, with some reserva- 
tions, Yale university. The graduate school, which conducts 
the courses leading to the degrees of master of arts and doctor 



265] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 1 5 

of philosophy, while accepting as a rule only actual gradu- 
ates of Yale or other colleges, admits in exceptional cases 
other persons of liberal education. Some few of the higher 
undergraduate courses are open to graduate students, and 
may be counted toward the higher degrees. A description 
of the organization of the university will be given below. 

b 

By far the greater number of institutions which conduct 
" graduate " work fall into the second division (b) which we 
have established, as not drawing a rigid line of demarcation 
between the undergraduate and the graduate courses. This 
does not mean that students who have not received their first 
or bachelor's degree, or its equivalent, are accepted as can- 
didates for the master's or doctor's degree, for to the writer's 
knowledge that is nowhere the case ; but merely that some 
at least of the courses leading to the higher degrees are 
open to undergraduate students. This feature, so difficult 
for foreign, especially German, observers to understand, is 
partly a necessity, partly the result of a deliberate policy which 
has in the main well justified itself. The policy will be dis- 
cussed later ; the necessity has arisen from the limited 
endowment of most of the institutions, which has made it 
impossible, even where it would have been desirable, to 
increase largely the number of professorships and the extent 
of such educational aids as libraries, laboratories, etc. 

The institutions remaining for our consideration are most 
conveniently divided into those of private (or originally pri- 
vate) foundation and the " state universities." The former 
have generally been aided at different times with greater or 
less liberality by the governments of the states in which they 
are established, in many cases a return having been demanded 
by the state in the form of free scholarships of one or another 
kind, or other privileges ; the state universities have fre- 
quently received valuable aid from private individuals. It 
should be stated here that the national government supports 
no universities, this being left entirely to the separate states. 



l6 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [266 

Institutions of private foundation 
1 Harrard university — The foundation of this venerable 
institution, at once the oldest, largest and most famous seat 
of learning in the United States, dates from 1636, when the 
general court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay voted a 
gift of four hundred pounds " towards a school or college." 
Instruction was not begun until 1638, in which year a bequest 
of John Harvard, a non-conforming clergyman of England, 
and a graduate of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, who had 
died at Charlestown, became available. The sum realized 
was sufficient to open the institution at once, and the grati- 
tude of the court was shown by the attachment of Harvard's 
name to the new college. In 1642 the management of the 
institution was entrusted to a board of overseers; in 1650 
the college was made a corporation, the board of overseers 
being also retained. With considerable changes in the mode 
of selecting the president and fellows (who constitute the 
" corporation ") and the overseers, this organization has per- 
sisted until the present day. The corporation is self-per- 
petuating ; the board of overseers, for a long period chosen 
by the legislature of Massachusetts, is now elected entirely 
by the graduates of Harvard college. From 1636 until 
1782, when a school of medicine was established, Harvard 
college composed the entire institution, conferring only the 
degrees of bachelor and master of arts. The term university 
seems to have been first applied to it in 1780, and has for 
many years been used of the institution as a whole, of which 
Harvard college is by statute merely a part. The legal titles 
of the controlling bodies are, however, "The President and 
Fellows, and the Board of Overseers, of Harvard College." 
The various departments of the university, added from time 
to time, have been largely reorganized during the last ten 
years. The present organization of the departments of 
instruction is briefly as follows : 

I — 1 1 1 Three schools under the faculty of arts and 
sciences, viz. : 



267] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY , 1 7 

I Harvard college, leading to the degree of bachelor of arts. 

II The Lawrence scientific school (degree of bachelor of 
science). 

III The graduate school (degrees of master of arts, mas- 
ter of science, doctor of philosophy and doctor of science). 

IV The divinity school (degree of bachelor of divinity). 

V The law school (degree of bachelor of laws). 

VI The medical school (degree of doctor of medicine). 

VII The dental school (degree of doctor of dental 
medicine). 

VIII The school of veterinary medicine (degree of doc- 
tor of veterinary medicine). 

IX The Bussey institution (degree of bachelor of agri- 
cultural science). 

Of these the graduate school corresponds very closely in 
range and methods of instruction to the philosophische Fak- 
ult'dt of the universities of Northern Germany, offering 
courses of research in philology (Semitic languages, Indo- 
Iranian, the classics (including Greek and Roman archae- 
ology), English, Germanic and Scandinavian, Romance 
languages, Celtic, Slavonic, history and political science, 
philosophy (including ethics and psychology), fine arts, 
music, mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, botany, 
zoology, geology, mineralogy, American archaeology and 
ethnology, physiology. Admission to the graduate school 
is ordinarily granted to graduates of colleges and scientific 
schools of good standing. This does not, however, imply 
admission to candidacy for a degree ; such is granted only to 
those whose credentials are approved by the committee on 
admission from other colleges, which satisfies itself that the 
applicant has had a training substantially equivalent to that 
demanded for the Harvard bachelor's degree. It frequently 
happens that such applicants spend a year in study for the 
Harvard degree of bachelor of arts, after which they may 
or may not go on to the higher degrees. 

The courses offered under the faculty of arts and sciences 
are of three kinds : 



1 8 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [268 

(1) Primarily for undergraduates. These, though often 
open to graduates, may be counted only toward the bach- 
elor's degree. 

(2) For undergraduates and graduates. These may be 
counted toward either the bachelor's, or toward the master's 
and doctor's degrees ; they are attended chiefly by under- 
graduates in their last, or graduates in their first, year of 
study as such. 

(3) Primarily for graduates. These courses are attended 
only by such undergraduates as have made unusual progress 
in their studies, and some of them are entirely closed to 
undergraduates. 

The school of law, with a course of three years, admits to 
full standing as candidates for the degree holders of a bach- 
elor's degree in arts, literature, philosophy or science granted 
by certain institutions named in the university catalogue, 
also persons qualified to enter the senior class of Harvard 
college. In the main it may be called a true graduate 
school, as out of 551 students enrolled in 1898-9, 489 held 
the bachelor's degree. This is true, in a minor degree, of 
the school of divinity, in which candidates for the degree of 
bachelor of divinity must have a satisfactory degree in arts 
or an equivalent approved by the faculty. The medical 
school, which at present prescribes a moderate examination 
for entering students, will soon be put on a true university 
basis by the requirement that in and after June, 1901, can- 
didates for admission must present a degree in arts, litera- 
ture, philosophy, science, or medicine from a recognized 
college or scientific school ; from this rule exceptions are to 
be made only by special vote of the faculty in each case. 

2 Yale university, New Haven, Conn. — In 1701 there was 
founded at Saybrook the Collegiate School of Connecticut, 
which was transferred to New Haven in 1716, and in 1718 
renamed Yale college, in recognition of the gifts made to 
the young institution by Elihu Yale of London. The 
degree of bachelor of arts, first awarded in 1702, was the 
only one given until 18 14. In the latter year the degree of 



269] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 1 9 

doctor of medicine was first bestowed, that of bachelor of 
laws in 1843, doctor of philosophy in i860, and civil engi- 
neer and bachelor of divinity in 1867. The name Yale col- 
lege was retained by the entire institution until compara- 
tively recent years. 

The present organization shows four departments : I Phil- 
osophy and the arts ; II Theology; III Medicine; IV Law. 

The department of philosophy and the arts includes Yale 
college (for some years called the "academical depart- 
ment "), the Sheffield scientific school, the graduate school, 
and the schools of fine arts and music. The graduate 
school, in its reorganized form, corresponds quite closely to 
that of Harvard university and to the German philosophische 
Fahultat, but differs from the latter in including advanced 
technical instruction in civil and mechanical engineering. 
It offers the degrees of master of arts, master of science, 
doctor of philosophy, civil engineer, and mechanical engi- 
neer. Admission is granted to graduates of Yale and of 
other colleges and universities, and (in exceptional cases) to 
other persons of liberal education, at least eighteen years 
old. The departments of study are these : Psychology, 
ethics and philosophy ; economics, social science, history 
and law ; Semitic languages and biblical literature ; classical 
and Indo-Iranian philology ; modern languages and litera- 
tures ; natural and physical science ; pure and applied mathe- 
matics ; the fine arts; music; physical culture. Out of 257 
students registered as in actual attendance upon the courses 
of the graduate school in 1898-9 only 8 were not holders of 
degrees, and of these 6 had received academic training 
in Japan. Some of the courses designed for advanced 
undergraduates in Yale college or the Sheffield scientific 
school are open to graduates, and may be counted toward 
the higher degrees. The schools of theology, medicine and 
law do not demand the possession of a degree as a condition 
of entrance, though this is practically recommended. 

3 Columbia university, New York — In 1754 there was 
founded in the city of New York, under royal charter of 



20 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [270 

George II, an institution for the education of youth, to 
which the name Kings college was given. The college 
existed under this name until 1784, though the exercises 
were partially, at times wholly, suspended during the war 
of the revolution. In 1784, on the incorporation of the 
" Regents of the University of the State of New York," 
the property of Kings college was vested in them, and its 
name changed to Columbia college. In 1787, however, this 
act was repealed, and the original charter issued to the col- 
lege was confirmed. The legal style of the new corporation 
was fixed as " The Trustees of Columbia College in the 
City of New York." This is still its legal designation. In 
1896 the board of trustees sanctioned the use in all official 
publications of the term Columbia University in the City of 
New York ; the name Columbia college has accordingly 
been restricted to its original sense, viz., the college proper, 
exclusive of the professional and graduate schools. It had 
been for some years customary to speak of this as the school 
of arts, to distinguish it from the schools of law, medicine 
and mines. The school of medicine (which bears also the 
title college of physicians and surgeons) was founded in 
1807, the school of law in 1858, the school of mines in 1864 ; 
from the latter were set off in 1896 the schools of chemistry, 
engineering and architecture. Affiliated with Columbia 
university are Barnard college, founded in 1889, and Teachers 
college, founded in 1888. The former offers to women 
undergraduates courses identical with those given in Colum- 
bia college, while its graduate students are admitted to the 
work of the faculties of philosophy, political science and pure 
science in Columbia university ; the latter is devoted to the 
special training of teachers, men and women alike, and certain 
of its courses are accepted by Columbia as part of the work 
required for its degrees, both baccalaureate and advanced. 
The organization of Columbia university, excluding Bar- 
nard and Teachers colleges, is as follows : 

I Columbia college. 

II The university, including 



271] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 21 

A. The non-professional schools 

1 Faculty of philosophy, which offers advanced courses 
and opportunities for original research in philosophy and 
education, psychology, Greek and Latin (induing archae- 
ology and epigraphy), English, literature, music, and the 
Germanic, Romance and oriental languages. 

2 Faculty of political science, giving similar instruction 
in political and social science, including history, economics 
and public law. 

3 Faculty of pure science, for mathematics and the vari- 
ous branches of natural science. 

4 Faculty of applied science, covering mining, metal- 
lurgy, engineering and architecture. 

B. The professional schools 
These are 

1 School of medicine, or college of physicians and sur- 
geons, with a four years' course leading to the degree of 
doctor of medicine. 

2 School of law, with a three years' course leading to the 
degree of bachelor of laws. 

3 Schools of mines, chemistry, engineering and architec- 
ture, which are under the charge of the faculty of applied 
science, and offer courses, each of four years, leading to the 
appropriate technical degrees (bachelor of philosophy, engi- 
neer of mines, civil engineer, etc.). 

Applying the test hitherto used, we find that the non-pro- 
fessional schools, which award the degrees of master of arts 
and doctor of philosophy, exact as the condition of admis- 
sion to candidacy for a degree the possession of a bacca- 
laureate or equivalent degree. Their organization as three 
faculties (or four) instead of one is modelled largely after 
those South German universities which have subdivided the 
ancient faculty of philosophy into two or more parts. The 
professional faculties do not as yet demand the possession of 
a degree of entering students ; but the faculty of law has 



22 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [272 

announced that in and after 1903 the bachelor's degree in 
arts or philosophy will be required of all candidates for 
admission to full standing. (In 1898-9, out of 348 pri- 
marily registered under the faculty of law, 216 held degrees.) 

A peculiarity of the Columbia organization is the system 
by which seniors in Columbia college, who have entered the 
college not later than the beginning of the junior year, are 
allowed to select part or all of the courses necessary for the 
bachelor's degree from among those designated by the 
" university " faculties, professional or non-professional, as 
open to them. Naturally only the introductory courses, or 
those of more general bearing, are so offered by these facul- 
ties. The object of this arrangement is to shorten the time 
necessary to the attainment of the higher, particularly of the 
professional, degrees. With the establishment of the four 
years' course in medicine, and the higher standards set by 
all the faculties, it was found that those who finished their 
college course before entering on professional studies could 
rarely secure the professional degree before reaching their 
twenty-fifth year, and it was believed that while good stu- 
dents should be ready to begin professional work after com- 
pleting their third year in college, yet the bachelor's degree 
should not be cheapened by awarding it for less than four 
years of collegiate study. On the whole the plan has 
worked well, though some complaints are made of the diffi- 
culty of carrying on graduate courses to which undergradu- 
ates, often necessarily of a lower grade of preparation, are 
admitted. In many cases courses thus open to undergradu- 
ates and graduates alike may not be counted toward the 
higher degrees unless additional work be done in connection 
with them. 

4 Cornell university, Ithaca, N. Y. — Cornell university occu- 
pies a middle ground between the institutions of private (or 
chiefly private) foundation and independent corporate exist- 
ence and the state universities to be described below. Its 
foundation was chiefly due to the generosity and strenuous 
efforts of Ezra Cornell, and it possesses corporate independ- 



273] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 23 

ence ; out tne government of the state of New York is rep- 
resented by ex-officio members on the board of trustees, and 
the funds for its establishment, other than those given by 
Mr. Cornell and other benefactors, were derived from the 
sale of the grants of public lands made to the state of New 
York by the " Morrill Act" of the national congress in 1862. 
Mr. Cornell's plan designed the establishment of an institu- 
tion " where any person might find instruction in any study ; " 
and if this has long since been seen to be impossible of reali- 
zation, yet the very breadth of sympathy evidenced by the 
desire has resulted in a foundation of unusual breadth and 
strength. The university was incorporated in 1865, and 
opened to students in 1868. Its constitution has undergone 
many changes, as well of internal arrangement as of outward 
expansion ; its present organization is the following : 

I Graduate department. 

II Academic department, or department of arts and 
sciences. 

III College of law. 

IV College of civil engineering, 

V Sibley college of mechanical arts. 

VI College of architecture. 

VII College of agriculture. 

VIII College of medicine. 

The New York state veterinary college and college of 
forestry are administered by Cornell university. The col- 
lege of medicine, constituted in 1897-8 from the faculties of 
two medical schools already existing in the city of New 
York, is situated in that city, though the work of the first 
two years may be done in Ithaca. 

The graduate department provides courses of instruction 
and research for graduate students leading to advanced 
degrees. No sharp line is drawn between graduates and 
undergraduate students, many of the courses being open to 
undergraduates who have prepared themselves by taking 
the necessary preliminary elective courses, but a large num- 



24 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [ 2 74 

ber are specially adapted to the wants of graduate students, 
and some are open exclusively to them. The degrees offered 
to graduate students are : Master of arts, master of science 
in architecture, master of civil engineering, master of mechan- 
ical engineering, master of science in agriculture, and doctor 
of philosophy. 

Seniors and juniors in the academic department are 
allowed, with certain restrictions, to elect studies in other 
departments of the university which shall count towards 
graduation in the academic department. The Columbia 
principle is thus applied more widely. 

The schools of law and medicine have not as yet made 
the possession of a first degree a necessary condition of 
admission. 

The exigencies of space forbid the description here of 
several of the prominent autonomous corporative institutions 
which include true university instruction in their work, such 
as Brown university at Providence, R. I., Princeton univer- 
sity in New Jersey, the Leland Stanford, Jr., university at 
Palo Alto, Cal., the Tulane university of Louisiana, the 
Vanderbilt university at Nashville, Tenn., and others. All 
comprise the college and the various scientific schools. We 
turn, therefore, to the most recently founded of the larger 
institutions, one which has taken at a bound a place in the 
very front rank of American education. 

5 The university of Chicago — The history of the university 
of Chicago begins with the year 1886, when Mr. J. D. Rocke- 
feller formed the idea of founding a new institution of learn- 
ing in Chicago. By a series of extraordinarily munificent 
gifts, made by Mr. Rockefeller and others, the establishment 
of the new institution was assured ; the first buildings were 
erected in 1891, and the doors opened to students October 
1, 1892. The organization is complicated, and in many 
respects unlike that of any other American university. An 
entirely original feature is the division of the academic year 
into four quarters of twelve weeks each, instead of two or 
three terms. Instruction is given during the whole year, 



275] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 25 

except during the interval of one week at the end of each 
quarter ; students remain for one or more quarters as they 
chose, and each instructor is bound to teach during thirty- 
six weeks of the year, with certain bounties for additional 
instruction given beyond this requirement. The university 
is organized in five distinct divisions : I The schools, col- 
leges and academies ; II The university extension ; III The 
university library, laboratories and museums ; IV The uni- 
versity press ; V The university affiliation. The first divis- 
ion, comprising the whole teaching staff of the university 
proper, consists of i The schools ; a Graduate schools ; 
b Professional schools. 2 The colleges ; a Junior college, 
corresponding to the first two years ; b Senior college, cor- 
responding to the last two years of the ordinary college. 

The graduate schools thus far organized are two, the 
graduate school of arts and literature, and the Ogden (grad- 
uate) school of science. Admission is granted (1) to those 
who have been graduated from the colleges of the univer- 
sity of Chicago with the degree of bachelor of arts, science 
or philosophy ; (2) to graduates of other institutions of 
good standing, holding degrees corresponding to those 
granted by the university. The degrees conferred are : Mas- 
ter of arts, master of science, master of philosophy, and 
doctor of philosophy. Most of the courses in the graduate 
schools are open to graduate students only, but some are 
open to students in the senior college who have received the 
preliminary training enabling them to profit by these courses. 
The divinity school includes, a the graduate divinity school, 
designed primarily for college graduates ; b the English 
theological seminary, with resident courses only in the sum- 
mer quarter ; c and d the Scandinavian theological semi- 
naries. The graduate divinity school admits to candidacy 
for the degree of bachelor of divinity only graduates of 
accepted colleges ; the degrees of master of arts and doctor 
of philosophy are also offered. 



26 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [276 

The state universities 
At the present time, in each of twenty-nine of the states 
of the union, there is maintained a single " state university," 
supported exclusively or prevailingly from public funds, and 
managed under the more or less direct control of the legis- 
lature and administrative officers of the state. In some 
cases private benefactions have notably supplemented the 
support given from public revenues. These states are the 
following : Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illi- 
nois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, 
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North 
Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, 
South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, 
West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. 1 The organization 
of these institutions, while more similar than that of the 
universities which are autonomous corporations, yet shows 
many points of divergence ; and their extent and stand- 
ards of scholarship vary even more widely. The larger 
among them exhibit a very complete development of 
technical and professional schools, with the exception of 
schools of theology, which naturally have no place in a 
country where state aid is not extended to religion. The 
professional schools of law and medicine, however, are 
generally supported, at least in greater part, by the fees 
received from students, and up to the present time none 
of them has been put on a true university basis. Other- 
wise, the sources of income of these universities are mainly 
the following: i The proceeds of land-grants made in 1862 
by the federal government, in accordance with the famous 
"Morrill Act" of 1862, for the maintenances of colleges 
whose leading object should be instruction in those branches 
of learning relating to agricultural and mechanical arts, 
including military tactics, and not excluding other scientific 

1 The university of the state of New York is not a university at all, but rather 
a state board of education, with supervision of all instruction given in the state. 
The " University of France," as constituted under Napoleon I, is closely analo- 
gous to it. 



277] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 2j 

and classical studies ; 2 State taxation, whether by way of 
annual appropriations from the general taxes of the state, or 
by continuous appropriations from a permanent special tax ; 
3 Tuition fees (only in some of the universities, while in 
many instruction is entirely gratuitous) ; 4 Private gifts and 
endowments — the least common source of revenue, although 
some brilliant exceptions are to be noted. 

The universal verdict of public opinion, in the states 
where such institutions are maintained, is that they, as state 
organizations supported directly by public taxation from 
which no taxable individual is exempt, should be open with- 
out distinction of sex, color or religion to all who can profit 
by the instruction therein given. Each forms the uppermost 
division of the general system of public education of the 
state in which it is maintained, and is managed with a view 
to completing the scheme of instruction begun in the pri- 
mary and carried on in the secondary schools. Control is 
vested in a board of public officials, generally called 
"regents." For example, the board of regents of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota consists of the governor of the state, 
the superintendent of public instruction, the president of the 
university, and seven members appointed by the governor 
and confirmed by the senate. In Michigan the regents are 
elected by popular vote for terms of eight years — an 
unusual feature. The composition and mode of choice of 
these boards varies greatly in different states, and not less 
their fitness for the responsibilities entrusted to them. In 
some states, as in Michigan and Wisconsin, the result of 
many years' endeavor has been, though after many vicissi- 
tudes and bitter struggles, the creation of noble schools of 
training ; in others the constant changes in political com- 
plexion of the legislature, and the self-seeking of party lead- 
ers, have made the universities mere shuttlecocks of public 
or party opinion, and not only has their development been 
hindered, but in some cases their usefulness deliberately 
crippled. Instances are not unknown where particularly 
able and courageous professors, who would not cut their 



28 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [278 

scientific opinions after the prevailing fashion in politics, 
have been driven from their chairs, even by outrageously 
underhanded methods. 

Of the state universities the most prominent and success- 
ful are those of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Cali- 
fornia. The first mentioned is the oldest and perhaps the 
best known. Under the direction of a series of singularly 
able men it has grown, since its foundation in 1837, into a 
position of commanding importance. The three others, 
while considerably younger, have shown a surprisingly rapid 
growth. As examples of the organization of state universi- 
ties will be taken Wisconsin and California. 

The University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. — When the 
state of Wisconsin was organized in 1848, the university was 
established by constitution as a part of the free school sys- 
tem of the state. The law establishing it declares that its 
object shall be " to provide the means of acquiring a 
thorough knowledge of the various branches of learning 
connected with scientific, industrial and professional pur- 
suits." The institution was reorganized in 1866, when the 
college of agriculture was united with it ; and the profes- 
sional and technical schools were added in rapid succession. 

The university comprises six divisions : 

I College of letters and science, with seven different 
undergraduate courses leading to baccalaureate degrees. 
The corresponding graduate courses lead to the higher 
degrees of master of arts, literature or science, and doctor of 
philosophy. These graduate courses include philosophy, 
pedagogy, economic and social science, history, philology, 
mathematics, natural sciences. 

II College of mechanics and engineering; the under- 
graduate courses lead to the degree of bachelor of science, 
and graduate courses to those of civil, mechanical, or electri- 
cal engineer. 

III College of agriculture, with three different courses, 
one leading to the degree of bachelor of science, and a 
course for graduates, to the degree of master of science. 






279] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 29 

IV College of law, with a three years' course, leading to 
the degree of bachelor of laws. 

V School of pharmacy. 

VI School of music. 

The school of economics, political science and history and 
the school of education are subdivisions of the college of 
letters and science ; their work extends over the later portion 
of the undergraduate, and through the graduate, depart- 
ments. The line between advanced undergraduates and 
graduate students is not sharply drawn, some courses being 
open to both classes of students. 

The University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, 
Cal. — The University of California, an integral part of the 
public educational system of the state, was established in 
1868, and instruction was begun the following year. The 
college of California, which had been organized in 1855, 
transferred its property and students to the new institution 
in 1869, and closed its own work of instruction. The pro- 
fessional schools, though contemplated in the original plan, 
were not actually organized until later. In June, 1888, the 
Lick observatory at Mount Hamilton became a part of the 
university. 

The controlling body is unusually large, consisting of the 
governor and lieutenant-governor of the state, the speaker 
of the assembly, the state superintendent of public instruc- 
tion, the presidents of the state agricultural society and the 
mechanics' institute of San Francisco, and the president of 
the university (all these ex-officio), and sixteen other regents 
appointed by the governor with the approval of the state 
senate. 

The institution is supported by various state funds ; the 
college of law has a special endowment ; the other profes- 
sional schools are supported by tuition-fees. 

In 1898 gifts amounting to many millions of dollars were 
made to the institution by Mrs. Phcebe Hearst, which will 
make possible the development of the university on a scale 
hitherto unexampled in America. 



3<D THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [280 

The organization of the university comprises the follow- 
ing departments of instruction : 

I In Berkeley : 

A The colleges of general culture : Letters (with degree 
of bachelor of arts), social science (bachelor of letters), 
natural sciences (bachelor of science), commerce (degree 
not yet established). 

B The colleges of applied science, leading to the degree 
of bachelor of science. 

II At Mt. Hamilton: 

The Lick astronomical department (observatory). 

III In San Francisco: 

1 The Mark Hopkins institute of art. 2 The Hastings 
college of the law. 3 The medical department. 4 The 
post-graduate medical department. 5 The college of dent- 
istry. 6 The California college of pharmacy. 7 The vet- 
erinary department. 

In the graduate department, regularly organized courses 
of instruction and research lead to the degrees of master of 
arts, literature or science, and doctor of philosophy. These 
courses comprise instruction in philosophy and education, 
history and political science, philology, decorative and indus- 
trial art, mathematics and natural science, engineering and 
agriculture. They are classified as : 1 Primarily for gradu- 
ates ; 2 for graduates and advanced undergraduates. 

Contrast with European universities 

The foregoing account of the chief types of university 
organization in the United States will, it is hoped, have 
made clear most of the details in which their structure is 
peculiarly American. The older institutions, starting from 
the English type of college, never developed in the direction 
of universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where the idea of 
the university as a great teaching body was lost in the 
excessive development of the college as a place of residence, 
and of the university as primarily a congeries of colleges. 



28 1] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 3 I 

The early medieval universities of Europe, on the continent 
as well as in England, generally provided for their students 
places of residence in buildings set apart for this purpose, 
instruction of the lower grades in connection with these 
residence halls, and higher instruction independently of them. 
On the continent, however, especially in France and Ger- 
many, the residential feature rapidly became less important, 
and finally, with a few unimportant exceptions, disappeared 
altogether, so that the entire resources of the universities, 
though often scanty enough, could be turned to account for 
the work of instruction. In England exactly the opposite 
occurred ; the residential halls became, through the impulse 
of successive pious foundations, the important factors in the 
university life, even attaining corporate independence and 
ultimately great wealth, and gradually assumed most of the 
instruction of the students, though the examinations and 
the award of degrees remained the prerogatives of the uni- 
versity as a whole — conditions which made directly for the 
fixity of residence characteristic of English universities, and 
adopted as a matter of course in the American colleges pat- 
terned after the English model. If the establishment of 
Harvard and Yale colleges had been followed at brief inter- 
vals of time by the foundation of other residential colleges 
in Cambridge and New Haven, and if there had existed in 
the colonies an established church with a prestige such as 
that possessed by the church of England in the home coun- 
try, keeping the colleges under its control, a state of affairs 
similar to that at Oxford would doubtless have resulted. 
The scanty population and limited means of the colonies, 
and their independence of the church of England, prevented 
such a result, fortunately, on the whole, for the educational 
welfare of the country at large. 1 Yet the residential feature 
has persisted throughout the history of the American col- 
lege ; though abandoned here and there, as at Columbia and 

^tis interesting to note that during the last few years the rapid growth of 
Harvard college, which had 1,851 undergraduate students in attendance during 
1898-9, led to a suggestion that it be divided somewhat on the English plan into 
three or four separate colleges, a plan which met with little favor. 



32 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [282 

the University of Pennsylvania, it has been restored at the 
latter, has again been adopted in principle, if not yet in 
practice, at Columbia, and deliberately introduced, in various 
forms, at many new institutions, even in some which at first 
had made no provision for students' residence. The Ameri- 
can institutions differ furthermore from the English universi- 
ties in this, that their growth has been so largely in the 
direction of professional and technical schools, though these 
have been thus far in less than a half a dozen instances 
placed on a real university basis. 

The points of difference between the American and the 
continental European universities are not less apparent. 
Taken as a whole, the American institutions exhibit only a 
portion of what in Europe is thought necessary to the con- 
stitution of a complete university, viz., the traditional four 
faculties of theology, law, medicine and philosophy, because, 
although all four may be in existence (as for example at 
Harvard), they are not all organized and administered on 
the same plane ; but on the other hand they include elements 
which in Europe are sharply marked off from the universi- 
ties, namely, technical schools, and undergraduate schools 
which in some cases correspond fairly well to the lycee or 
gymnasium of France or Germany, in others to the last two 
or three years of these institutions and the first year of the 
university or technical school. If we separate the strictly 
graduate schools of the American universities from the 
remainder of their respective institutions, we shall find them 
in general covering pretty nearly the ground of the "philo- 
sophical faculties" of Germany, and more or less closely 
approximating them in methods of work. A decided point 
of difference, however, consists in the comparative infre- 
quence of migration on the part of students from university 
to university, which is so nearly the universal rule in 
Germany. 



283] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 33 



III EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF UNIVERSITY OR GRADUATE 
INSTRUCTION. DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OUT 
OF THE COLLEGE. INFLUENCE OF GERMAN MODELS AND 
METHODS 

The cataloges of Harvard college contain, somewhat 
before 1800, the names of individuals enrolled as "resident 
graduates," though no statement is made of the advantages 
offered them or the work expected of them. This continues 
for many years, the numbers of the graduate students vary- 
ing greatly; e. g., in 181 1 are entered twelve such; in 1825, 
one; in 1833, nine; in 1837, one; in 1845, J 5J m I ^5o, 
three; in 1855, six; in i860, nine. During the early years 
of the 19th century Americans began to seek out the uni- 
versities of Germany. The first American to be graduated 
at a German university was Edward Everett, who was made 
a doctor of philosophy of Gottingen in 181 7. He was fol- 
lowed in 1 8 19 by Joseph Green Cogswell, by George Ban- 
croft in 1820, and R. B. Patton in 1821. The inspiration 
there received sowed the seed from which has sprung such 
abundant fruit. Yet the seed was long in sprouting. A 
very interesting letter from Bancroft, written in 1871, 1 offer- 
ing the foundation of a graduate scholarship, tells of the 
writer's unsuccessful attempts in 1821 "to introduce among 
us some parts of the German system of education, so as to 
divide more exactly preliminary studies from the higher 
scientific courses, and thus facilitate the transformation of 
our colleges into universities, after the plan everywhere 
adopted in Germany." He then continues : " But it is not 
easy to change an organization that has its roots in the 
habits of the country ; and the experiment could not suc- 
ceed." " I then applied * * * for leave to read lec- 
tures on History in the University. At Gottingen or at 
Berlin I had the right, after a few preliminary formalities, 
to deliver such a course. * * * My request was 

'In the Harvard University Catalog for 1898-9, pp. 459 ff. 



34 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [284 

declined by my own alma mater. * * *" After 1821 
no American seems to have received a German degree until 
1848, when B. A. Gould, the astronomer, took the doctor's 
degree in philosophy. From this time on the numbers 
increased rapidly. Gottingen was the favorite university 
with Americans, though some studied elsewhere, W. D. 
Whitney taking his degree at Breslau in 1852. 

The year 1847 saw the establishment at Yale of a " depart- 
ment of philosophy and the arts," for scientific and graduate 
study, leading to the degree of bachelor of philosophy. 
The catalog of that year says : " The branches intended 
to be embraced in this department are such in general as 
are not included under theology, law or medicine ; or more 
particularly, mathematical science, physical science and its 
application to the arts, metaphysics, philology, literature and 
history. The instructions in the department are intended 
for graduates of this and other colleges, and for such other 
young men as are desirous of pursuing special branches of 
study ; but it is necessary for all students in philosophy and 
mathematical science that they be thoroughly grounded in 
these studies." Among the first lecturers in these courses 
were President Woolsey in Greek, Professors Silliman in 
chemistry, Porter in logic and philosophy, Salisbury in ori- 
ental languages. During the years between 1847 and 1861 
these courses were gradually expanded, and soon separated 
into two divisions, 1, the Yale (afterwards called the Shef- 
field) scientific school ; and 2, special courses in history, phil- 
ology, philosophy and mathematics. Other scholars of note 
were added to the list of lecturers, notably W. D. Whitney 
in 1854. In the catalog for 1860-61 appears for the first 
time in the United States the announcement that the degree 
of doctor of philosophy will be awarded. As candidates 
there were to be admitted, without examination, bachelors of 
arts, science and philosophy ; others after successfully pass- 
ing equivalent examinations. The degree was first bestowed 
in 1 86 1. A distinct graduate school was first fully organ- 
ized in 1872. 



285] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 35 

At the University of Michigan a university course was 
projected early in President Tappan's administration (1852- 
1863), but never fully carried out. In 1858-9 some gradu- 
ate courses of lectures were established. The degree of 
master of arts was first conferred after examination in 1859 ; 
previously it had been given, as elsewhere, " in course," i. e., 
after the lapse of a certain period. 

At Columbia college a plan was formed between 1854 and 
1857 to establish three schools, of philosophy or philology, 
jurisprudence and history, and mathematics and physical 
science, to extend through the senior year of the college 
and two years beyond it, the degree of bachelor of arts to 
be given as usual at the end of the four years' course. The 
plan was not completely realized, but twenty-five years later 
it was revived in a somewhat different form by the establish- 
ment of the school of political science, and the principle 
has been substantially adopted in the present organization 
of the university. In 1858 courses of lectures for advanced 
students were opened by Professors. A. Guyot, G. P. Marsh, 
W. G. Peck and others, but continued only for one year. 

In i860 the Harvard catalog contains for the first time 
a definite statement about graduate students : " Graduates 
of the university, or of other collegiate institutions, desirous 
of pursuing studies at Cambridge without joining any pro- 
fessional school, may do so as resident graduates." In 
February, 1863, courses of lectures were offered "open to 
all graduates of colleges and school teachers who enter their 
names, to persons connected with the university, except 
undergraduates, and to others on payment of $5 " on nat- 
ural science, philosophy, literature, art, etc. Among the lec- 
turers were Louis Agassiz, James Russell Lowell, Charles 
Eliot Norton. These lectures were continued until 1872; 
but the number of resident graduates remained practically 
stationary, even declining to 5 in 1868-9. 

In 1872 Harvard university announced that it would con- 
fer the degrees of doctor of philosophy and doctor of 
science, and that the degree of master of arts would be 



36 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [286 

given only on examination. To candidacy for these higher 
degrees were to be admitted bachelors of arts of Harvard, 
and bachelors of arts of other colleges who should satisfy the 
faculty that they had had a training equal to that given at 
Harvard. Excellent provision was made for the instruction 
of graduates, and one fellowship and one scholarship for 
graduates were established. In 1872 28 graduate students 
were enrolled; in 1876-7, 61 ; in 1889-90, in. The gradu- 
ate department was organized as a separate school in 1890. 
In the twenty-five years from 1873 to 1898 the doctorate in 
science or in philosophy has been conferred on 212 men. 

At Cornell university, where actual instruction was begun 
in 1868, the degree of doctor of philosophy was planned for 
from the beginning, though at first the requirements were 
strangely limited. Rapid changes were soon made, how- 
ever, and in 1871 we find the requirements of two years' 
resident graduate study, the passing of examinations, and 
the presentation of a satisfactory dissertation, laid down in 
the catalog. The graduate courses are thus described in 
the catalog of 1876: "Post graduate courses of study 
leading to secondary or advanced degrees have been or will 
be on application marked out, in the following general 
departments : Chemistry and physics, ancient classical lan- 
guages and literature, modern European languages and 
literatures, oriental languages and literatures, mathematics, 
natural history, and philosophy and letters." In the same 
year regulations for the award of the degree of doctor of 
science were established. 

At Princeton " post-graduate " courses are first mentioned 
in the catalogue for 1877-8, as in operation, with 44 students, 
in three groups, philology, philosophy and [natural] science. 
At first only a certificate of work done was given to these 
students ; the degree of master of arts was still given " in 
course." Courses in natural science, leading to the degree 
of master of science, were established in 1881 ; and about 
the same time new regulations for the master's degree were 
published, and that of doctor of philosophy was offered. 



287] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 37 

Johns Hopkins university was organized from the first 
with chief regard to graduate work ; its influence upon 
older institutions became very marked from the time of its 
opening in 1876. The University of Michigan first offered 
the doctor's degree in philosophy in 1874-5. The degree 
of master of arts ceased to be conferred "in course" in 1877. 

At Columbia the master of arts degree was conferred " in 
course" for the last time in 1880; thereafter it was given 
only to bachelors of arts of three years' standing, who had 
pursued for at least one year a course of study under the 
direction of the faculty of the college, in one or more of five 
groups : Greek, Latin, English ; philosophy, ethics, logic ; 
mathematics, mechanics, astronomy ; physics, chemistry, 
geology; constitutional law, economics, history. Instruction 
for graduates was begun in the same year. The degree of 
doctor of philosophy was first awarded in 1884. The regu- 
lations for the award of the higher degrees suffered several 
changes from year to year. In 1890 the entire institution 
was thoroughly reorganized ; the school of philosophy was 
established ; it and the school of political science, existing 
since 1879, were made '" university " faculties, and in 1893 
the faculty of pure science was added to them. 

At Bryn Mawr college, opened in 1885, graduate instruc- 
tion was undertaken from the first, as at Johns Hopkins, 
though the organization of undergraduate work was made 
relatively more important than at Baltimore. Clark univer- 
sity, from 1887, has never organized undergraduate courses. 

The twenty-eight years elapsed since the first doctor of 
philosophy was created at New Haven, in 1861, have brought 
about an expansion and development of graduate study that 
is not less than wonderful. In 1898-9 over 3,600 students, 
of whom nearly 1,000 were women, were enrolled in some 
24 institutions. The whole number who were receiving 
graduate instruction in the United States was much greater 
than this; and in 1898, 246 persons received from these 
institutions the degree of doctor of philosophy. 

In this rapid development, from i860 to 1899, of the doc- 



38 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [288 

torate as the goal to which the graduate student presses on, 
must be recognized the working of the impulse and inspira- 
tion brought from Germany. The enthusiastic desire, felt 
by Bancroft in 1820, of transforming the American college 
into a German university, shows itself again in Michigan 
and elsewhere a generation later. Between 1870 and 1880 
many Americans were returning home from foreign study, 
and the number of those seeking the universities of the 
fatherland increased rapidly. What appealed to them most 
among the advantages there found was the freedom of 
research, and the abundant encouragement and opportunities 
extended to the aspiring student. There was little or noth- 
ing in the American college organization of 1870 to encour- 
age this spirit, and it is no wonder that each returning Ph. D., 
or his less fortunate brother whose means or time had not 
permitted him to acquire this badge of accomplishment, 
should have proved an apostle of a new dispensation. That 
many mistakes should be made was inevitable ; the first 
enthusiasm overlooked many of the stubborn facts of Ameri- 
can life which refused to be bent into agreement with Ger- 
man standards. It is to the credit of American educators 
that so many ways have been found of keeping what is good 
for us in the German system, and bringing it into harmony 
with a national view of life quite different from that which 
produced this system. The plan, so often advocated, of turn- 
ing the colleges into universities at once, could not have 
succeeded, because the projectors forgot that only the Ger- 
man secondary school system made possible the German 
university and its methods of work, that the reform must be 
begun at the bottom as well as at the top, and that the 
American college was too intimately connected with the 
American national life to be abolished or summarily turned 
into a Gymnasium. The last ten or fifteen years have 
brought much greater clearness of vision. The problem to 
be worked out, a problem whose solution is well begun, is 
how to make of the college the proper complement of the 
secondary school. In their gymnasial organization, with its 



289] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 39 

rigid training under one system for nine years, the Germans 
have beyond question an educational advantage of incalcu- 
lable value ; but such a system is possible only in a state 
whose government is sufficiently strong and paternal to 
impose its will upon the people for generation after genera- 
tion. We too could have gymnasia if we were willing to 
pay the price for them. That price, however, would be one 
against which the personal independence of the American 
would instantly protest. The maintenance of the rigid con- 
trol and discipline of the gymnasium is made possible only 
by a direct interference of the teachers, as government offi- 
cials, even with what seem to Americans to be pure family 
matters. 1 

Naturally, then, what was adopted from Germany was 
found to be most available and useful when employed as a 
supplement to the American college, not as a substitute for 
it. That this addition to our educational system was in 
general made in connection with existing institutions has 
been on the whole a great advantage to us. Great libraries, 
laboratories and museums, such as are necessary to a univer- 
sity, cannot be created at once, even with adequate endow- 
ments. Until the principle of American government is 
changed it will not be possible to create state institutions 
exclusively devoted to the highest education ; nor, under the 
political conditions of the United States, is it desirable. 
The number of men thoroughly competent to organize and 
administer a great university is very small indeed ; the best 
commercial or political organizer often fails most signally in 
this field. For this very reason, probably, the experiment 
has not yet been possible on a scale large enough to afford 
a real test. 

1 So for instance the domiciliary visits sometimes made by the teachers, to see 
if the pupils are at work at the hours prescribed for Hausarbeit. For an excellent 
account of the German gymnasia, see Russell, J. E., German Higher Schools, N. 
Y. 1899. 



4-0 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [29O 



IV QUALIFICATIONS FOR ADMISSION. STUDIES AND DEGREES. 
HONORARY DOCTORS OF PHILOSOPHY. AIDS TO STUDY AND 
RESEARCH : MUSEUMS, LABORATORIES, LIBRARIES 

In general, the possession of a bachelor's degree is requi- 
site for admission to the graduate school of an American 
university. In the earlier years of the existence of these 
schools, it was chiefly the degree of bachelor of arts which 
was demanded. A difficulty soon arose. Many students 
presented themselves who had had a good training, though 
without the classics, or at least without Greek, and held 
bachelors' degrees in philosophy or science. At some insti- 
tutions these degrees represented distinctly less severe work 
than the degree of bachelor of arts, at others this discrep- 
ancy did not exist. In general, however, it must be said, 
the first degrees in " philosophy," "letters" or "science" 
were more easily acquired than that in arts. To ensure the 
proper preparation of intending students, most graduate 
faculties or boards of administration reserved and still 
reserve the right of passing upon the special qualifications 
of each individual who does not hold a first degree from the 
institution where he seeks admission as a graduate student. 
In some universities great liberality — sometimes too great 
— is shown toward applicants. At Columbia those who 
hold a baccalaureate degree in arts, letters, philosophy or 
science, or an engineering degree, or the equivalent of one 
of these from a foreign institution of learning, are admitted 
as candidates for the degrees of master of arts and doctor of 
philosophy ; the university faculties protect themselves by 
requiring that every candidate for a higher degree must 
present to the dean of each school in which he intends to 
study evidence that he is qualified for the studies he desires 
tc undertake. A student once admitted to one of the 
schools, however, unless as a special student, becomes ipso 
facto a candidate for a degree, and is expected to settle at 
once upon his major and two minor subjects. At other 
universities admission to a graduate school does not imply 



291] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 41 

admission to candidacy for a degree, this being granted only- 
later, when the student has shown himself thoroughly quali- 
fied for the necessary work. This qualification includes in 
many institutions the ability to read fluently French and 
German, sometimes Latin. The plan has been found to 
work well where it has been in operation, and deserves gen- 
eral adoption. It is followed, e. g., at Harvard, and at the 
University of Chicago. At the latter institution the names 
of those who are, and those who are not yet, admitted to 
candidacy for a degree are printed separately in the 
catalog. 

All the graduate schools, with few if any exceptions, award 
the degrees of master of arts and doctor of philosophy. At 
Columbia these are the only ones thus awarded, the degree 
of master of laws, though classed as a university degree, 
being given for work done under the faculties of law and 
political science together. The doctorate is offered at some 
institutions in two forms, doctor of philosophy and doctor of 
science ; the latter, given for advanced work in natural 
science, is rarely taken. At Harvard, for instance, while 
190 degrees of Ph. D. were granted from 1873 to 1898, but 
22 of S. D. were given, the greatest number in any one year 
being three, and none were awarded in 1874, 1876, 1877, 
1880, 1883, 1885, 1888, 1890, 1896, or 1898. 

The master's degree has not been reduced to such sim- 
plicity. Many institutions still create masters of science, 
philosophy, letters (or literature), corresponding to the bac- 
calaureate degrees in those subjects. 

The ^requirements to be fulfilled for the doctor's degree 
show greater uniformity among the different institutions than 
those for the master's. The minimum period of study any- 
where accepted is two years after receiving the bachelor's 
degree. Where undergraduates are admitted to some of 
the courses arranged for graduates, this means that three 
years (as at Columbia), or even four (as at Cornell), may 
still be passed under the direction of the graduate faculty 
or committee of graduate instruction by a student who 



42 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [292 

merely fulfills the minimum requirement of graduate attend- 
ance. But even in those institutions where the minimum 
period is two years the degree is not often obtained in that 
time ; it may indeed be safely said that the minimum of 
three years' study is practically universal. The Johns Hop- 
kins university, in establishing its regulations for the doc- 
tor's degree, adopted the German system of Hauptfach and 
Nebenfcicher, the " major subject " being that field of research 
which furnishes the subject for the dissertation demanded, 
and the "minor subjects" being required to be organically 
connected with it. Harvard and Yale, on the other hand, 
do not hold to this system, demanding merely that the 
amount and kind of work done shall be satisfactory to the 
controlling board or committee. At Harvard the regula- 
tions read as follows : " A candidate for the degree of doctor 
of philosophy must offer himself for examination in some 
one of the divisions of the faculty of arts and sciences. 
The subjects in which the degree may be taken are * * * : 
philology, philosophy, history, political science, music, mathe- 
matics, physics (including chemistry), natural history, Amer- 
ican archaeology and ethnology. Within his chosen division 
the candidate must name some special field of study, approved 
as sufficient by the committee on honors and higher degrees 
in that division. He is liable to minute examination on the 
whole of that special field and is also required to prove such 
acquaintance with the subject-matter of his division in gen- 
eral as the committee in that division shall require." For 
the doctorate in science two subjects in the range of the 
mathematical, physical and natural sciences are demanded, 
in one of which special attainments must be shown. Colum- 
bia goes farther perhaps than any other American univer- 
sity in specifying minutely what branches of study may 
count as subjects in the schools of philosophy, political sci- 
ence and pure science. Concerning the recognition of work 
done in graduate schools elsewhere great diversity of prac- 
tice prevails. No university has yet seen fit to accept can- 
didates for the degree who have completed all their residence 



293] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 43 

elsewhere, as is so freely done in Germany ; the feeling is 
still strong that the institution that bestows a degree upon a 
candidate must have had that candidate under its direct 
charge for a considerable time. The practice shows a dis- 
trust of other institutions which is far from complimentary 
to the general state of the university education in America, 
and is partly explainable from the strong competition for 
students which, characteristic of most of the colleges, is often 
seen in the graduate schools as well. It is to be hoped that 
this spirit will gradually disappear. The sooner all the 
graduate schools realize that their interests are absolutely 
identical the better for university education in America. 
The smallest minimum time of actual residence where the 
degree is sought that is anywhere prescribed for the doctor's 
degree is one year. Generally it is the last year of resi- 
dence that is thus demanded. Wisconsin stipulates that 
either the last year or the first two years be spent in resi- 
dence there. At some of the universities there are regula- 
tions concerning the minimum number of hours of lectures 
to be taken ; at Columbia, for instance, candidates for either 
the master's or the doctor's degree are expected to attend 
lectures for at least four hours a week in the major subject, 
and two hours a week in each of the minors, and a seminar 
must be attended in the major subject. At Johns Hopkins 
each minor subject is expected to be followed for a year, the 
first minor to about double the extent of the second. Most 
of the universities, however, leave the graduate student free 
in this respect, justly regarding the direction and advice of 
the professor as a better guide than hard and fast regula- 
tions. Nearly everywhere a reading knowledge of French 
and German, and in many institutions a similar knowledge 
of Latin, are demanded of the candidate. The require- 
ments of a dissertation embodying original research, and of 
examinations, are enforced at all the prominent institutions. 
In the management of the examinations the practice of the 
various institutions differs widely. In many both written 
and oral examinations must be passed, and often the candi- 



44 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [294 

date must pass an oral examination at least on his major 
subject, and defend his dissertation, before the whole fac- 
ulty — a custom which ought to be made universal. Fifteen 
at least of the universities granting the doctor's degree 
require the dissertation, when accepted, to be printed ; in 
most cases where this is done a stated number of copies 
must be furnished, free of cost to the institution, to its 
library, for distribution among other institutions at home and 
abroad. 

Concerning the master's degree, as has been said above, 
much less uniformity prevails. The Ph. D. degree was so 
distinctively a new departure when first introduced into 
America that it was easier to establish regulations for it 
which should be at variance with old-established usage ; but 
the master of arts was as old as the college itself, and a 
firmly fixed tradition gave it, for many years, as a matter of 
course, after a certain interval of time, to those bachelors 
who were willing to pay a moderate amount for the privilege. 
Only rarely was any evidence of continued study demanded. 
After the middle of the present century, however, this cus- 
tom was viewed with increasing disfavor, and one college 
after another abolished it. Requirements of residence and 
study were established, or of study elsewhere than at the 
institution granting the degree, with an examination as a 
test. But these requirements were made on two different 
principles. In some places the master's degree was viewed 
as an advanced baccalaureate, and requirements of certain 
"courses," covering a certain number of hours of attendance, 
adopted. Elsewhere it was regarded as a sort of minor doc- 
tor's degree, and the requirements arranged accordingly, i. e., 
attendance for a certain minimum period, without stipulation 
of the number of hours, and a thesis or essay. Columbia 
seems to have gone farthest in this respect, demanding work 
in three subjects, as for the doctor's degree. In all cases, 
however, under both systems alike, the time spent in resi- 
dence for the master's degree may count towards the doctor- 
ate. The minimum term of residence is everywhere a year, 



295] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 45 

except that the University of Michigan is satisfied with six 
months from its own graduates. Clark university and Johns 
Hopkins do not grant the master's degree separately from 
the doctorate ; at Bryn Mawr it may be given separately 
only to graduates of that college. 

The better and more logical plan seems to be the separa- 
tion of the master's degree in principle from the doctor's. 
While both go back to the same beginning, and when first 
bestowed in European universities meant about the same 
thing, their courses of development diverged, England hold- 
ing to the master of arts and Germany substituting for it 
the doctorate in philosophy, to correspond with that in law 
and medicine, and everywhere doing away with the bacca- 
laureate, except as transferred to the gymnasia and repre- 
sented by the testimonium maturitatis. It is interesting, 
and characteristic for the peculiar development of American 
educational forms, that the two divergent branches of the 
parent stem should have been brought together again in our 
universities. There will always be a considerable number 
of students who wish to continue their work beyond the 
bachelor's degree, but along the same lines, and do not care 
to enter upon the detailed research necessary for the doctor- 
ate. For these the master's degree, administered on the 
first plan, is most appropriate. Those, on the other hand, 
who seek the doctorate are mostly indifferent to the master's 
degree. 

The methods of study and instruction differ but slightly 
from those in vogue in the German university, and thus far 
have yielded excellent results. The differences are mainly 
such as result naturally from the greater burdening of the 
American professor with routine work, and from the varying 
conditions of previous training on the part of the students. 
In general, the "lecture," or freier Vortrag, is less common 
than in Germany, though gradually supplanting the recita- 
tion even in the upper classes of the college ; in the opinion 
of the present writer, the lecture is still far from receiving 
its due development among us. Its value in the exposition 



4 6 



THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 



[296 



of the fundamental principles of the various sciences is not 
yet everywhere fully recognized. " Seminar " methods are 
now very widely used even where the constitution of the 
class is much less restricted than in the German seminars. 
The American seminar is of course very variously adminis- 
tered, depending on the ability of those in charge and the 
preparation of the students. The professors, so far as their 
other prescribed tasks allow, set the example of individual 
scientific research. It cannot yet be said, however, that this 
is made easy for the American professor. 

An interesting chapter in the history of American educa- 
tion, and unfortunately one that cannot yet be brought to a 
close, concerns the fight made against the outrageous prac- 
tice of awarding the doctorate in philosophy as an honor- 
ary degree. Awarded first by Yale in i860 as strictly a 
specialist's degree, it has been jealously guarded by the 
more reputable institutions, while the less scrupulous col- 
leges seized upon it with avidity as a new advertisement for 
themselves. Several learned societies, following the lead 
taken by the American philological association in 1881, set 
themselves vigorously against the abuse, and in 1896 a con- 
vention of graduate students held at Baltimore strongly 
condemned the practice. The sentiment of the enlightened 
public is gradually being brought to condemn the custom, 
though the rate of progress suffers considerable variation 
from year to year. The following table shows the figures 
for certain years : 



NO. OF PH. D. DEGREES 

GRANTED IN UNITED 

STATES 


1873 


1884 


1889 


1894 


1895 


1896 


1897 


1898 


On examination 


25 
17 

68£ 


28 
36 

I28# 


121 
4tf 


233 
33 

I4# 


234 
34 

15* 


239 

27 

91-2* 


227 
30 

13% 


304 
S% 


Ratio of honorary Ph. D. to 
Ph. D. on examination... 



With the equipment ot laboratories, museums and libra- 
ries, indispensable for research, the American universities 



297] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 47 

are now fairly well, and some of them abundantly, provided. 
Many of the laboratories are the gift of private individuals ; 
sometimes the buildings only have been thus provided, 
sometimes the equipment only, sometimes both. The insti- 
tutions situated in or near large cities have in addition the 
advantage of the public museums and libraries ; thus, to 
mention but a few instances, Harvard is within easy reach 
of the Boston museum of fine arts and the Boston public 
library, besides having under her own control several excel- 
lent museums ; Columbia is close to the Metropolitan 
museum of art, the American museum of natural history, 
and others ; the Johns Hopkins students can easily reach the 
great national collections at Washington, and so on. The 
western universities are not as yet so highly favored in this 
respect. 

The growth of the university and college libraries in the 
United States is hardly less than phenomenal. The largest 
are the following : Harvard, 524,000 vols.; Chicago, 309,000 ; 
Yale, 290,000; Columbia, 260,000; Cornell, 211,000; Penn- 
sylvania, 160,000. It must be said, however, that the excel- 
lence of the library is not always indicated by its size. The 
liberal and practical spirit in which American university 
libraries are administered is very striking ; of the cumber- 
some methods and vexatious restrictions so common in 
European libraries little is to be found. 

V PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 

From a number of the universities of the United States 
issue serial publications of a scientific character, and occa- 
sional learned works, written or edited by professors and 
advanced students of those institutions. Some of the uni- 
versities issue these at their own expense, the entire publi- 
cation being under the immediate control and direction of 
the institution, as at Chicago, others through arrangements 
made with publishing houses. The following list of the 
chief publications of six of the leading universities will afford 
an idea of the activity prevailing in this field : 



48 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [_ 2 9% 

i Harvard university — Some departments of study issue 
periodicals or yearly volumes, embodying the work of 
instructors and students at the university. Such are : 

Harvard Oriental Series. Vols. I-V. 

Harvard Studies in Classical Philogy. Yearly. Vols. I-X. 

Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature. Yearly. Vols. 
I-VII. 

Harvard Historical Studies. Vols. I-VII. 

Quarterly Journal of Economics ; now in thirteenth year. 

Annals of the Observatory of Harvard College. Vols. I-XXXVI. 

Contributions from the Cryptogamic Laboratory. Nos. 1-40. 

Publications of the Museum of Comparative Zoology : Bulletins, 
vols. I-XXXII ; Memoirs, vols. I-XXII. 

Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory. Nos. 1-86. 

Publications of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology 
and Ethnology: Reports, Nos. 1-3 1 ; Papers, Nos. 1-6; Memoirs, 
Nos. 1-5. 

2 Johns Hopkins university — The Johns Hopkins press 
issues the following, edited by professors of the university : 

American Journal of Mathematics. Quarterly. Vols. I-XXI. 
American Chemical Journal. Monthly. Vols. I-XXI. 
American Journal of Philology. Quarterly. Vols. I-XX. 
Studies from the Biological Laboratory. 

Studies in History and Politics. Monthly. Vols. I-XVII ; also 
eighteen extra volumes. 

Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports. Vols. I-VII. 

Contributions to Assyriology, etc. Vols. I-IV. 

Memoirs from the Biological Laboratory. Vols. I-IV. 

Modern Language Notes. Monthly. Vols. I-XIV. 

Journal of Experimental Medicine. Bi-monthly. Vols. I-IV. 

American Journal of Insanity. Quarterly. 

Reports of the Maryland Geological Survey. 

3 University of Pennsylvania — The following are issued 
under the editorial supervision of the university publications 
committee. They are issued for the most part at irregular 
intervals. 

Series in Philology, Literature and Archaeology. 

Series in Philosophy. 

Series in Political Economy and Public Law. 



299] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 49 

Series in Botany. 
Series in Zoology. 
Series in Mathematics. 
Series in Hygiene. 
Series in Astronomy. 

The museums of archaeology and palaeontology also pub- 
lish occasional reports. 

4 Columbia university — The Columbia university press 
is a private corporation, the trustees of which must be mem- 
bers of the teaching staff, and its presiding officer the presi- 
dent of the university. Up to the present time it has issued 
sixteen volumes, mostly by present or former members of 
the university. 

From the university issue the following series of studies 
and contributions, some few of them through regular pub- 
lishing channels : 

Biological Contributions from C. U. 

C. U. Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology and Education. 

Contributions from the Electrical Engineering Department of 
C. U. 

Contributions from the Geological Department, the Herbarium, 
the Mineralogical Department, the Observatory. 

Memoirs from the Department of Botany. 

Studies from the Analytical and Assay Laboratories, the Depart- 
ment of Pathology. 

Studies in History, Economics and Public Law. 

The following journals are issued under the direction of 
members of the faculty : 

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 
Educational Review. 
Political Science Quarterly. 
School of Mines Quarterly. 

5 University of Wisconsin — The university issues four 
series of publications, known as the Bulletins of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, under the direction of a committee 
consisting of the president and several professors. 



50 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [300 

Series in Economics, Political Science and History. Vols. 1 
and 2. 

Series in Science. Vols. 1 and 2. 

Series in Language and Literature. Vol. 1. 

Series in Engineering. Vols. 1 and 2. 

6 University of Chicago— The University press forms one 
of five divisions in the constitution of the university, and is 
managed by a director appointed by the trustees. The 
department of publication, one of its parts, issues the fol- 
lowing journals, edited by professors of the university : 

Journal of Political Economy. Quarterly. 
Journal of Geology. Bi-monthly. 
Astrophysical Journal. Ten nos. a year. 
American Journal of Sociology. Bi-monthly. 
Biblical World. Monthly. 

American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature (con- 
tinuation of: Hebraica). Quarterly. 
Botanical Gazette. Monthly. 
School Review, Ten nos. a year. 
American Journal of Theology. Quarterly. 

Several series of " Studies " have also appeared. These are : 

Contributions to Philosophy. I-IV. 

Economic Studies. I-IV. 

Studies in Political Science. I— III. 

Studies in Classical Philology. I-V. 

Germanic Studies. I— III. 

English Studies. I. 

Physiological Archives. I. 

Anthropological Bulletins. I, II. 

The press also issues from time to time books, particu- 
larly those of scientific value. 

VI FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS. GIFTS AND ENDOW- 
MENTS FOR UNIVERSITIES, PARTICULARLY FOR RESEARCH 

The generosity of private individuals towards education, 
which in its largest form has made possible the foundation 
of such institutions as Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Chicago, 
manifests itself likewise in the humbler guise of gifts and 



30l] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 5 1 

endowments for special purposes, in the establishment of 
museums and laboratories, of funds for the maintenance of 
these or of libraries, in the foundation of scholarships and 
fellowships intended to aid students of high promise in the 
prosecution of their studies, or to reward those who have 
shown conspicuous merit. In general, it may be said that 
the specifically college part of an institution fares much bet- 
ter than the university or graduate part in these respects. 
The reasons are not far to seek. Prizes naturally appeal 
more to the younger students, and are more easily awarded 
in connection with the definitely arranged work of under- 
graduate courses ; it is harder for undergraduates to support 
themselves by giving private instruction, and in other ways, 
than for graduate students ; the need of " dormitories " or 
residence halls, which few colleges can afford to erect from 
their own funds, is more pressing for undergraduates ; and, 
finally, of the college-trained men, from whom the larger 
number of endowments come (though to this there are many 
striking exceptions), not a very large proportion have had 
actual experience of graduate work, and do not so readily 
recognize the importance of it, and their loyalty to their almce 
matres is accordingly concentrated chiefly upon the collegi- 
ate rather than the university part, where the latter exists. 
Scholarships and fellowships are much more bountifully 
supplied, for graduates as well as undergraduates, in the 
universities of private foundation than in the state universi- 
ties. In the latter tuition is either free or considerably 
cheaper than in the former, and the need for aid to the stu- 
dent correspondingly less. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cor- 
nell, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Bryn Mawr, 
and Chicago are particularly well supplied in this respect ; 
Chicago has nearly eighty fellowships to award each year, 
Columbia and Pennsylvania each over thirty. The amount 
paid by a fellowship to the holder varies from $120 (as some 
at Chicago) to $800 ; the most usual figure is about $500. 
The value of a fellowship may, however, be decreased by 
the requirement, made at some universities, that all tuition 



52 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [302 

fees must be paid by the holders ; Columbia is perhaps the 
most liberal in exempting the holders of fellowships from 
such payments. In some universities certain duties in the 
way of instruction, etc., are expected of the fellows. 

The differences between scholarships and fellowships are 
in general briefly these : The fellowships are awarded only 
to graduates ; a scholarship may be for graduates or for 
undergraduates ; the scholarships are awarded generally for 
a single year only, and without possibility of renewal, while 
some fellowships run for several years, and the annual ones 
may be reassigned once or twice to the same person. 

The fellowship system was first extensively used by Johns 
Hopkins, and has rapidly become a striking feature of Ameri- 
can university organization. The object sought has been in 
most cases completely attained, viz., to bring together a body 
of picked men or women, who display high ability and good 
previous training for the work of research, and spare them 
the necessity, so trying to earnest students, of earning their 
living while carrying on their advanced studies. Some few 
of the fellowships are so organized as to permit part or the 
whole of the time over which they extend to be spent in study 
abroad ; Bryn Mawr in particular offers three European fel- 
lowships, and for 1898-9 Harvard made twelve appointments 
to non-resident fellowships. 

Some of these fellowships are paid out of the general funds 
of the university awarding them ; others are maintained by 
the proceeds of private gifts and endowments. At some 
institutions the fellowships are assigned permanently to cer- 
tain departments ; at others the majority of them are given 
to the most promising candidates, little regard being had to 
an even distribution among departments. The fellowships 
and scholarships founded by individuals are generally 
attached to some one department. Among the notable 
benefactions of this sort are : At Harvard, the Kirkland 
fellowship, founded by Bancroft in 1871 ; the Walker fel- 
lowship (1881), generally given to a student of ethics and 
philosophy; the John Tyndall fellowship (1885), in physics; 



303] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 53 

the Robert Treat Paine fellowship of social science (1887) ; 
the Hemenway fellowship of American archaeology and 
ethnology (1891). At Columbia, the Tyndall fellowship, 
similar to that at Harvard, both of them, with others else- 
where, having been founded by Professor Tyndall ; the 
Barnard fellowship, in physical science, established by will 
of the late President Barnard ; the Henry Drisler fellow- 
ship in classical philology ; the Mosenthal fellowship in 
music ; the Schiff fellowship in political science. The Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania possesses a permanent fund of 
$500,000, the gift of Provost Harrison, the income of which 
is partly applied to nineteen fellowships, fourteen of which 
are permanently assigned to particular departments. This 
fund also supplies five remarkable senior fellowships, yield- 
ing $800 a year each, open only to doctors of philosophy of 
the university. Johns Hopkins awards the Bruce fellowship 
in biological science. Cornell offers, among others, two 
President White fellowships, one in modern history and one 
in political and social science, and three Susan Linn Sage 
fellowships in philosophy. 

Several fellowships at the American schools of classical 
studies at Athens and in Rome are also offered to graduates 
of American universities ; of these the Hoppin fellowship at 
Athens, and the fellowship in Christian archaeology at the 
school in Rome, are private foundations. 

There is, perhaps, no prominent institution in the United 
States devoted to the higher education which does not pos- 
sess some practical demonstration of the determination of 
individuals to further the work, not only of instruction, but 
of research as well. The greater gifts result in museums, 
laboratories or libraries ; such are the Semitic museum and 
the Fogg art museum at Cambridge, the Avery architectural 
library at Columbia, the White historical library at Cornell, 
and many more. The magnificent library building at Colum- 
bia is the gift of her president ; a great fund, presented by 
the Due de Loubat, will one day become available as a 
library fund at Columbia ; the generosity of several gradu- 



54 



THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [304 



ates of Yale brought to her the admirable classical library 
of Ernst Curtius, as the historical library of Bluntschli was 
brought to Baltimore ; in Messrs. Stanford and Rockefeller 
and Mrs. Hearst the Leland Stanford, Jr., university, the 
University of Chicago and the University of California 
have found more than princely benefactors ; the gifts of the 
patrons of Princeton, Cornell, Chicago are almost without 
number. In the Drisler classical fund Columbia possesses 
a means of supply for the purchase of books and illustra- 
tions, such as casts and photographs, for the better prosecu- 
tion of the work in Latin and Greek. The Harvard astro- 
nomical observatory, among many splendid gifts, received 
in 1885 one of more than a quarter of a million dollars, the 
entire fortune of the late Robert Treat Paine, for purposes 
of astronomical research. Owing to the comparative lack 
of great fortunes in the southern states, the universities there 
have not fared so well ; but the spirit is abroad there too, and 
the constant increase of wealth in those states is certain to be 
followed by the liberal extension of aid to the universities. 
A very remarkable and encouraging feature of the gener- 
osity manifested in the United States towards institutions of 
learning is the fact that so many of the gifts, among them 
several of the largest, have come from men who had not 
enjoyed collegiate education. A case in point is the munifi- 
cence of Mr. Fayerweather, a merchant of New York, who 
bequeathed in 1891 more than four millions of dollars to 
various colleges and universities, wisely refraining from 
adding, as many public spirited men of less judgment have 
done, to the superfluity of institutions already existing, and 
with equal wisdom leaving to the recipients of the funds the 
determination of the purposes for which the funds should be 
used. It is truly encouraging for the future of education in 
America that so many of her millionaires are willing to give 
freely of the fortunes that they have accumulated, and that 
those who give the most should set the example of entrust- 
ing the application of the funds to those who best under- 
stand the needs to be met. 



305] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 55 



VII SOME PRESENT UNIVERSITY PROBLEMS 

Da muss sich manches R'dtsel losen, 
Doch manches R'dtsel knupft sich auch. 

— Faust. 

When the problems of education are all solved, educa- 
tion itself will be dead, and the need of it greater than 
ever. The entire range of education in the United States 
has been in a state of rapid transition for many years 
already, and nowhere have the changes been more constant 
than in the domain of college and university education. 
From the establishment of graduate courses at Yale in 1847 
until the present day, probably no year has passed without 
seeing some new experiment tried, some old institution reor- 
ganized or new one founded. If the new institutions have 
often shown too little willingness to profit by the experience 
of others, or to adopt the ways and means of other lands, it 
must be remembered that the educational problem has been 
but one of many with which the leaders of thought in this 
country have been confronted, and that in the attempt to 
conform institutions to the spirit of the country it has been 
necessary first to discover, often at great pains and heavy 
cost to the experimenter, what that spirit was. 

Naturally the most important question has been and still 
is that of organization. It has doubtless become apparent 
from the foregoing description that no two universities are 
just alike, and that the differences do not by any means con- 
cern unimportant points. Every possible variety of organic 
zation and administration seems to the observer — especially 
the foreign observer — to have been tried, except that of a 
consistent and rigid adherence to forms sanctioned by cen- 
turies of permanence in Europe. 

The vacillation has come from uncertainty as to the true 
purposes of the university. In Europe these purposes were 
long ago settled : the university exists to train servants of 
the state, or, as prevailing in England, to train up a race of 
gentlemen who shall never forget the obligations of their 



56 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [306 

caste. It is the glory of Germany that she has seen more 
clearly than other nations how truly the highest scientific 
training is none too good for her public servants. 

The wholly different conditions prevailing in the United 
States have been reflected in the organization of our univer- 
sities and colleges. There is no state religion, and the 
national constitution forbids the patronage or proscription of 
any sect ; consequently the theological faculty, originally the 
most important in the universities of western and northern 
Europe, found no state recognition. The practice of the law 
was subject to few restrictions, and indeed in at least one 
state is still open to every citizen of mature age, so that the 
schools of law, when they began at all, grew up mostly on a 
basis of private organization, .with purely practical training 
as their object, and often underbid one another in their 
eagerness for students. With such exceptions as the nature 
of the profession brings with it, the regulation of the study 
and practice of medicine went the same course, proprietary 
schools being the most frequent form of organization for 
instruction in the healing art. As for the faculty of arts or 
philosophy, which, originally preparatory for one of the 
others, had in Germany been put on a par with them and 
made the doorway to the new profession of teaching in the 
state schools, its ground was partially covered by the cur- 
ricula of the best colleges. The character of these colleges 
however resembled more nearly that of the German philo- 
sophical faculty of two centuries ago. The state systems of 
education did not at first include more than elementary 
schools, so that there was no great incentive for prescribing 
a college course for those persons who wished to teach in 
them ; nor would such a regulation have been popular in 
intensely democratic communities, or, in the poverty of 
many of the states, easily possible of fulfillment. Under 
these circumstances the European conception of a univer- 
sity was lost ; and when it began to be regained, different 
systems, imperfect and incongruous it is true, but still in 
many ways useful, had grown up to fill the needs which are 



307] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 57 

supplied in Europe by the university. Other needs had 
made themselves felt in America even more keenly : the 
needs incident to the rapid settling and exploitation of a 
new country, where vast distances and a phenomenal growth 
of population made imperative some provision for training 
in the technical professions and mechanical arts. It is not 
strange, then, though it has been unfortunate for the country 
at large, that the last need to be recognized in education has 
been the need of thorough training in the humanities and in 
pure science, in what has been admirably well called 1 " dis- 
interested scientific thinking, as distinguished from tech- 
nical or commercial science." 

American educators, then, are not yet at one as regards 
the true function of the university. In general, two oppos- 
ing views are chiefly held. The purpose of the Leland 
Stanford, Jr., university is declared to be : To fit young 
persons for success in life. An admirable purpose, no doubt, 
but one which the university must share in common with 
many other institutions. Of a like breadth of conception is 
the avowed purpose of Ezra Cornell : I would found an 
institution where any person may find instruction in any 
study. TJie brilliant history of Cornell university is chiefly 
due to the wisdom of the men who have seen what limita- 
tions should be put upon this great plan. This view of the 
true function of a university is chiefly prevalent in the west ; 
one sometimes hears it said that the western universities 
exist solely for the sake of the students, while some of the 
eastern universities seem to think that the students exist 
chiefly for the sake of the universities or of science at large. 
The universities of private foundation are proceeding more 
and more on the assumption that their function is to train, 
in their graduate departments or faculties of philosophy, 
specialists, as teachers, and to a less extent as investigators ; 
those which have raised some of their professional schools to 

1 By Professor West of Princeton, in the Educational Review for October, 1899. 
So too Professor Coulter {Ibid. IV [1892] 366 ff): " The university is in the largest 
sense a place for the emancipation of thought." 



58 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [308 

true university rank by refusing admission to all who have 
not received a non-professional degree aim not merely to 
instruct the future physicians and lawyers in the technique 
of their professions, but to give them true scientific insight 
and philosophic grasp. 

Until there is agreement as to the true function of a uni- 
versity, there cannot be agreement as to their organization 
and administration. Whoever holds to the Stanford idea 
will wish to see all departments of instruction put on pre- 
cisely the same plane ; whoever believes that scientific 
research is the highest and noblest aim of education will 
demand for the university an organization which shall 
emphasize this, leaving to other institutions the teaching 
which is entirely practical. 

As a whole, American universities seem to be trying to 
do too many things at once, generally with an altogether 
inadequate equipment of instructors, and with an insufficient 
endowment. Each university aims to cover the entire field 
of instruction ; the result is that the professors, who are, 
except in the professional faculties, almost always college 
instructors as well, are cruelly overburdened with teaching 
and administrative duties, with the inevitable result that few 
of them can carry on much research. The organization of 
most of our universities is too complicated. Many profes- 
sors have to attend two, three, or even four faculty meetings 
each month, and serve on committees without number ; some 
of them are even expected to do purely clerical work. 

Perhaps the most important of American university prob- 
lems at present, as bearing directly upon the necessary organi- 
zation and determining it, is the relation of university or 
graduate work to undergraduate work and to professional 
training. 

With the very liberal regulation, often lack of regulation, 
exercised by the state governments over the practice of the 
professions of law and medicine, the number of practition- 
ers has inevitably become excessively great. The need of 
stricter control has been seen, and many states have increased 



309] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 59 

the requirements for admission to practice. That any of the 
states will require a complete collegiate education as a pre- 
liminary to admission to practice is a very remote possibility. 
It rests with the universities to raise the plane of their pro- 
fessional schools so that only the fittest will survive. Experi- 
ence has shown that raising the standard of an institution is 
surely followed in a few years by an increase in numbers as 
well as in the quality of students entering. A beginning 
has already been made, as indicated above, for the profes- 
sional schools of law and medicine. As for the technical 
schools, most of them, whether connected with the universi- 
ties or not, have been too ready to admit students on very 
slight requirements. Perhaps in time the best of these will 
see that a good preliminary training ought to be demanded 
of their students, and so put themselves also on a university 
level. 

Enough has been said, it is hoped, to show that there is 
little chance of re-establishing in any American university 
the traditional four faculties, unaccompanied by any other 
departments of instruction. If means were abundant, it 
would perhaps be advisable to separate entirely from the 
universities the technical schools, except such as should be 
willing to demand a preliminary degree for admission and 
to develop more fully the theoretical and research side of 
their teaching. At present undue prominence is given to 
the technical schools in many institutions, largely because 
they are the best paying parts, and the tone of the whole 
institution, as an organization that should exist as largely 
for the advancement of research as for any other cause, is 
distinctly lowered thereby. 

The graduate school, or faculty of philosophy, bears closer 
relations with the collegiate course than can be borne by 
any professional faculty. The overburdening of professors 
alluded to above might be remedied by the appointment, 
where endowments would allow, of professors exclusively 
for graduate work on the lines of the faculty of philosophy, 
who should be able to engage in extended research work 



60 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [3 10 

with advanced students. Hitherto no institution has been 
in a position to do this in any large degree. Nor has it 
been possible to try on a really instructive scale the experi- 
ment of a university without college or technical schools. 
Whether such a university could properly maintain a faculty 
of theology, it is hard to say. The Union theological semi- 
nary in New York, while under Presbyterian management, 
is in many respects a real university faculty, and the same 
may be said of some few others. The relations between 
Columbia and the Union seminary have become close, with 
the good result that many students of the latter attend 
courses at Columbia under the faculties of political science 
and philosophy, and are eligible for Columbia degrees. 

Concerning the precise relation to be borne by the gradu- 
ate work to that of the college, no general agreement has 
yet been reached. Even where the two are carefully sepa- 
rated, no such great dissimilarity in methods exists as pre- 
vails in Germany between the gymnasium and the university. 
Where, as at Harvard, the lines of demarcation are partly 
obliterated, the change from one method to another is very 
gradual. Johns Hopkins aims above all at producing spe- 
cialists, and even her college courses are largely shaped to 
this end. The results certainly justify her policy. 

The preparation which the candidates for admission to the 
graduate schools bring with them is naturally very varied. 
For many kinds of advanced work, the general training 
given in the college is not enough ; so that the student, in 
order not to lose much valuable time afterward, has to begin 
his special studies before receiving his first degree. This is 
encouraged by the system in vogue at Columbia, especially 
in the case of students looking forward to medicine or the 
law. A tendency to over-early specialization is showing 
itself in many places ; the students are naturally anxious to 
begin the active duties of life as soon as possible, and are 
unwilling to postpone the acquirement of the professional 
degree until the 25th or 26th year of their age. A remedy 
for this has been sought in several directions, but none of 



31 i] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 6 1 

the plans tried has been successful enough to prevail over 
the others. The trouble seems to lie largely in the loss of 
time during the earlier school years. The pupils are not 
taken in hand early enough, nor do they receive severe 
enough training. With the improvement in organization 
and methods which is everywhere noticeable, it ought to be 
possible after a few years to send young men and women to 
college at sixteen as well prepared as they are now at seven- 
teen or eighteen. With this done, the college course might 
well be shortened to three years. 

It may be asked, what of the Lehrfreiheit and Lern- 
freiheit, the freedom for teacher and learner, as they are 
claimed for the universities of Germany, in those of Amer- 
ica ? As for the first, the American university professor has 
little cause for complaint ; whatever may have been the case 
twenty-five years ago, he may now teach what he likes nearly 
everywhere, though now and then the regents of a state uni- 
versity, or the religious body controlling a divinity school, 
raise noisy protest. In one respect there is yet much room 
for improvement : as yet no serious effort has been made to 
introduce one of the most valuable features of the German 
university system, the system of Privatdozenten. It is not 
yet possible, any more than it was for Bancroft in 1821, for a 
young man of ability to secure the right of lecturing at a 
university by merely proving that he is competent to do it. 
The introduction of this custom has been several times 
attempted, but so far with quite insignificant results. 

As for the Lernfreiheit, that too has become naturalized 
among us ; even the undergraduate enjoys a large measure 
of it, largest in those colleges where the elective system has 
taken firm root. One development of it, the migration of 
students from one university to another without loss of 
standing, is still unsatisfactory. The custom is highly 
desirable, and is steadily gaining ground in America ; it is 
much commoner from the colleges to the purely profes- 
sional schools, students of law and medicine naturally seek- 
ing the large cities ; the chief obstacles to its adoption are 



62 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [3 I 2 

the differences between the various universities in the mat- 
ter of organization and of requirements for degrees, and the 
close connection between college and university which lead 
the college graduate in many instances to remain for gradu- 
ate work where he has taken his bachelor's degree, out of 
pure attachment to his alma mater. According to a writer 
in the Educational Review, 1 in 1892-3 at Harvard 119 out 
of 206 graduate students, or nearly 58 per cent, had received 
degrees at other institutions; at Johns Hopkins 201 out of 
270, or 74 per cent ; at Yale 59 out of 125, or 47 per cent ; 
at Cornell 119 out of 182, or 65 per cent; at Columbia 
(faculties of philosophy and political science) 109 out of 
212, or 51 per cent; total of these five, 607 out of 995, or 
61 per cent. In 1898-9, however, of the graduate students 
registered in the graduate school at Harvard, only 39 per 
cent had received their degrees elsewhere ; at Yale only 43 
per cent. 

It is interesting to observe how rapidly the spirit of inde- 
pendence with responsibility is developing among the gradu- 
ate students. At twenty-two or more institutions which 
maintain graduate schools the students in these have formed 
themselves into associations for the furtherance of their 
mutual interests, and these clubs have formed a national 
federation which holds annual meetings, where papers are 
read, and questions affecting the whole range of graduate 
work are discussed. The interest shown in these proceed- 
ings, and the intelligent spirit in which many important ques- 
tions are approached, make these associations into a most 
valuable adjunct to the work of the graduate schools. At 
the fourth annual convention, held at Cambridge, Mass., in 
December, 1898, addresses were delivered by President Eliot 
and Professor J. W. White, of Harvard, and papers were 
read, followed by animated discussion, on the following top- 
ics : The migration of students ; the regulations concerning 
major and minor subjects ; specialized scholarship vs. prepa- 
ration for teaching, as a basis for graduate study ; the mas- 

1 Gross, Chas., E. R. VII, 26 ff. 



313] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 63 

ter's degree ; graduate studies in European universities ; the 
regulation of graduate to undergraduate courses. The fed- 
eration of graduate clubs also carries on a determined oppo- 
sition to the practice of conferring the Ph. D. honoris causa. 
A project vigorously advocated by many eminent Ameri- 
can educators is the foundation of a national university for 
the United States, to be situated at Washington, to be con- 
trolled by a board of regents under the chairmanship of the 
president of the United States, and to be constituted on the 
true university basis of admitting to any of its schools only 
those who have received the preliminary training shown by 
the possession of a bachelor's degree. The plan is an allur- 
ing one from some points of view. The chief difficulty 
would seem to be in the matter of endowment. To add 
another institution of learning to those that swarm in the 
United States, unless the new comer should at once outrank 
them all in the magnitude and completeness of its equip- 
ment, and unless its rise should imply the setting of a num- 
ber of the minor lights, would be a very doubtful service to 
the cause of university education. So far no endowments at 
all comparable with those of half-a-dozen of the universities 
already existing have appeared ; and it is extremely doubtful 
whether congress could be depended upon to give the insti- 
tution the thoroughly adequate support without which it 
must remain at best one additional " torso of a university." 

Note: Since the above lines were written, a large and representative committee 
appointed by the National Educational Association to consider the question has 
reported against the establishment of such a national university. 



64 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [3 1 4 

APPENDIX A 
Some statistics of graduate schools in the United States 

The peculiarly complicated and varying organization of 
the American college-university makes it impracticable to 
draw up satisfactory tables of statistics on such simple lines 
as would suffice if the universities of Germany, for instance, 
were to be thus treated. Only such figures are given here 
as suffice to show the rapid increase in the numbers of 
graduate, non-professional students during the last twenty- 
eight years, and the attendance at the best known institu- 
tions in 1898-99 : 

I 

Number of graduate students {excluding professional schools) i8ji-8j 



1871-72 198 

1874-75 369 

1877-78 ... 4H 



1880-81 460 

1883-84 778 

1886-87 1 237 



II 

Attendance of graduate students {exclusive of professional schools) 

1889-97 

1889-90 1 998 graduate students at 1 14 institutions. 

1891-92 2900 " " " 121 " 

1893-94 3026 " " " 135 

1895-96 3756 " " " 122 " 

1896-97 4 392 " " " 146 " 

Note: It should be borne in mind that (except for 1889-90) no account is here 
taken of non-resident graduate students, and that an overwhelming majority of 
graduate students is to be found in attendance at the 23 institutions mentioned in 
Table III. A very great number of institutions report less than half-a-dozen 
graduate students. 



3*5j 



THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 



65 



III 

Statistics of the 23 most prominent institutions reporting graduate 
students, 1898-9 1 



1. Brown university 

2. Bryn Mawr college 

3. University of California 

4. University of Chicago 

5. Clark university 

6. Columbia university (including Barnard 

college) 

7. Columbian university (Washington, 

(D.C) 

8. Cornell university 

9. Harvard university % 



10. Johns Hopkins university 

11. Leland Stanford, Jr., university 

12. University of Michigan 

13. University of Minnesota 

14. University of Missouri 

15. New York university. . 

16. University of Pennsylvania 

17. Princeton university 

18. Radcliffe college (closely connected with 

Harvard) 

19. Vanderbilt university 

20. Wellesley college 

21. Western Reserve university 

22. University of Wisconsin 

23. Yale university. 



36 

25 

40 

130 



26 

328 s 
130 



Graduate stu- 
dents (exclud- 
ing profes- 
SIONAL schools) 



30 

o 

IOI 

581 
48 



59 

I09 2 
329 



58 

49 
104 

18 
124 

124 



16 
102 
241 



39 
61 
90 

276 



82 



69 

61 

191 

857 

48 



342 

68 
142 2 
329 



97 
66 
156 
25 
159 
158 
12S 

58 
37 

27 



128 

283 



Women only 

Includ'g sum- 
mer quarter 

Women not 
admitted 

Women ad- 
mitted thro' 
Barnard 



Women ad- 
mitted to 
some cour- 
ses and only 
thro' Rad- 
cliffe; de- 
gree of A. 
M. given by 
Radcliffe, 
Ph. D., not 
given to 
women 

Women not 
admitted 



Women not 

admitted 
Women only 

Women only; 
Ph. D. not 
given 



1 The figures are taken (except for Cornell) from the "Graduate Handbook" 
for 1899. 

•Including professional schools. 



,66 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [3 I 6 

APPENDIX B 
Brief bibliography 

The chief source of information concerning all educational 
matters in the United States is the admirable series of reports 
of the commissioner of education, issued from the United 
States bureau of education, Washington, D. C. These are 
issued for each academic year (i. e., September-June), gen- 
erally within two years after the close of the academic year 
for which the report is drawn up. The last issued to date 
(October, 1899) is the report for 1896-7. These contain 
not only exhaustive statistics, but also reviews of the educa- 
tional progress of the year, and valuable articles by various 
writers on educational questions at home and abroad. 

Of accounts of the American system of higher education 
the following may be reported here : 

Compayr^, G. L'enseignement superieur aux Etats-Unis. Paris, 
1896. (Rapports de la de'le'gation envoye'e a 1' Exposition Col- 
ombienne de Chicago. 1893, ire partie.) 

de Coubertin, Pierre. Universites Transatlantiques. Paris, 1890. 
(Largely impressions de voyage?) 

Zimmermann, Athanasius, S. J. Die Universit'aten in den Ver- 
einigten Staaten Amerikas. Ein Beitrag zur Culturgeschichte. 
Freiburg, Baden, 1896. (Erganzungshefte zu den " Stimmen aus 
Maria Laach." No. 68, XVII. Erganzungsband.) An excellent 
account in brief compass, with a selected bibliography. 

Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth. N. Y. Vol. II, 

Schoenfeld, H. Amerikanische Staatsuniversitaten. Article in 
the Padagogisches Archiv, Vol. XXXVIII (1896). 

Report of Commissioner of Education. 1889-90, vol. II, p. 783 fT. 
(On organization of the state universities.) 

Thwing, C. F. The American College in American Life. 
Tappan, H. P. University Education. N. Y., 185 1. 

Burgess, J. W. The American University : When shall it be? 
Where shall it be? What shall it be? Boston, 1884. 

Haven, E. O. Universities in America. Ann Arbor, 1863. 



LofC. 



317] THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 67 

Johnston, W. P. Work of the University in America. Address 

before the South Carolina college. Columbia, S. C, 1884. 
Butler, N. M. Introduction to Paulsen's German Universities, 

Engl, translation. N. Y., 1895. 
Howard, G. E. Evolution of the University. Lincoln, Nebraska, 

1890. 
The American University and the American Man. Palo 

Alta, Cal, 1893. 
Eliot, C. W. Educational Reform. Essays and addresses. N. Y., 

1898. 
Ladd, G. T. Essays on the Higher Education. N. Y., 1899. 

For the history and development of the individual univer- 
sities the " annual catalogues " or " registers " published by 
the institutions themselves often give valuable material. In 
some of the universities it is the custom to publish the 
" annual reports " of the president or chancellor ; these are 
of great importance for an understanding of the policy of 
the university in question. Harvard, Columbia, Johns 
Hopkins and others publish such reports — an example 
worthy of imitation by every large institution of learning. 

The Federation of graduate clubs has published several 
small volumes of great interest. These at first gave merely 
the courses offered to graduate students at the most promi- 
nent institutions; but the Graduate handbook for 1899 
(printed for the federation by Lippincott, 1899 — unfortu- 
nately not in the market) contains the proceedings of the 
meeting at Cambridge alluded to on p. 62. 

In the successive volumes of the Educational review (N. 

Y., 1 89 1 ) will be found many valuable articles on a wide 

range of topics connected with American university educa- 
tion, e. g. : Davis, H., Limitations of state universities, I, 
426 ff. Butler, N. M., On permitting students to take studies 
in professional schools while pursuing a regular undergradu- 
ate course, III, 54 ff. Jordan, D. S., The policy of the Stan- 
ford university, IV, 1 ff ; The educational ideas of Leland 
Stanford, VI, 136 ff. Hyde, W. D., Organization of Ameri- 
can education, IV, 209 ff. Coulter, J. M., The university 



68 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY [3 I 8 

spirit, IV, 366 ff. Low, Seth, Higher education in the U. 
S., V, 1 ff. von Hoist, H. E., The need of universities in the 
U. S. (the famous Chicago address), V, 105 ff. Gross, Chas., 
Colleges and universities in the U. S., VII, 26 ff. Santa- 
yana, G., Spirit and ideals of Harvard univ., VII, 313 ff. 
Taylor, J. M., Graduate work in the college, VII, 62 ff. 
Hinsdale, B. A., Spirit and ideals of the University of 
Michigan, XI, 356 ff., 476 ff. Baird, W., The University of 
Virginia, XII, 417 ff. Draper, A. S., State universities of 
the middle west, XI, 313 ff. Edgren, H., American gradu- 
ate schools, XV, 285. Anon., The status of the American 
professor, XVI, 417 ff. In vol. XVI, pp. 503 ff., is repro- 
duced an interesting article published in the London Spec- 
tator of Feb. 12, 1898, entitled, What is a university? 



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I OV -1 19/.4 



